Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Attacking Innovation, Jeffrey A. Maine

Faculty Publications

Economists generally agree that innovation is important to economic growth and that government support for innovation is necessary. Historically, the U.S. government has supported innovation in a variety of ways: (1) a strong legal system for patents; (2) direct support through research performed by government agencies, grants, loans, and loan guarantees; and (3) indirect support through various tax incentives for private firms. In recent years, however, we have seen a weakening of the U.S. patent system, a decline in direct funding of research, and a weakening of tax policy tools used to encourage new innovation. These disruptive changes threaten the …

The "Evergreening" Metaphor In Intellectual Property Scholarship, Erika Lietzan

Faculty Publications

This article is a plea for changes in the scholarly dialogue about "evergreening" by drug companies. Allegations that drug companies engage in "evergreening" are pervasive in legal scholarship, economic scholarship, medical and health policy scholarship, and policy writing, and they have prompted significant policymaking proposals. This Article was motivated by concern that the metaphor has not been fully explained and that policymaking in response might therefore be premature. It canvasses and assesses the scholarly literature-more than 300 articles discussing or mentioning "evergreening." It catalogues the definitions, the examples, and the empirical studies. Scholars use the term when describing certain actions …

Private Rights For The Public Good?, J. Janewa Oseitutu

Faculty Publications

The counterfeit medicines discussion is an example of how the use of a turbid rationale for greater intellectual property protections serves sophisticated private interests while potentially harming the public interest. The risk of harm created by counterfeit medicines provides a compelling counter-narrative to the access to medicines critique of intellectual property rights.

Intellectual property advocates and the pharmaceutical industry have portrayed poor global enforcement of intellectual property rights as contributing to the proliferation of dangerous counterfeit medications. Yet, the deliberate linkage in the literature between weak intellectual property rights and the harms caused by counterfeit medicines provides a justification for …

The Patent Remedy Dynamic [Georgetown-Stanford Conference], Colleen Chien

Faculty Publications

Panel discussion on the NPEs, patent damages, including review of expert testimony, the effect of RAND and other policies on standard-setting cases at the ITC and in district courts, and other patent remedy issues.

Tailoring Remedies To Spur Innovation, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Faculty Publications

An emerging rule in the district courts—thus far endorsed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit—allows a victorious patent holder to receive a permanent injunction against an infringer if she is able to show that she has suffered a loss of market share due to the infringement. The larger the loss of market share the patent holder can prove, the more likely the court will issue an injunction. This “market share rule” is a response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., exhorting lower courts to engage in equitable balancing before awarding …

The Copyrightability Of New Works Of Authorship: 'Xml Schemas' As An Example, I. Trotter Hardy

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Does Technology Require New Law?, David D. Friedman

Faculty Publications

Technological change affects the law in at least three ways: (1) by altering the cost of violating and enforcing existing legal rules; (2) by altering the underlying facts that justify legal rules; and (3) by changing the underlying facts implicitly assumed by the law, making existing legal concepts and categories obsolete, even meaningless. The legal system can choose to ignore such changes. Alternatively, it may selectively alter its rules legislatively or via judicial interpretation. In this essay I first discuss, as an interesting historical example, past technological changes relevant to copyright law and the law's response. I then go on …

The Federal Circuit’S Cruise To Uncharted Waters: How Patent Protection For Algorithms And Business Methods May Sink The Ucita And State Intellectual Property Protection, Ralph D. Clifford

Faculty Publications

The realm of intellectual property law now changes at an incredible pace, with the courts discarding venerable concepts rapidly. This is not surprising as the transition from a goods-based society to one based on information increases the importance of intellectual property law. Nowhere has this been more apparent than the Federal Circuit’s recent reworking of the scope of federal patent law. Today, it is difficult to imagine anything for which a patent cannot be sought and received. Furthermore, the expansion of the patent law’s scope has a corresponding impact on state powers. Because the patent law serves to implicitly preempt …

Intellectual Property In The Era Of The Creative Computer Program, Ralph D. Clifford

Faculty Publications

Computer scientists, using artificial intelligence techniques such as neural networks, are enabling computers to independently create works that appear to qualify for federal intellectual property protection. In at least one case, the creator of this kind of program has registered its output, a series of musical compositions, under his name as author with United States Copyright Office. Whether the output of the computer satisfies the statutory and constitutional requisites for protection is questionable, however. The author of this Article argues that the output of an autonomously creative computer program cannot be protected under the current copyright and patent laws. Further, …