Internet Law Commons^™

About-Face: How Facebook’S Restrictions On User Posts Could Violate Antitrust Law, Efrem Berk

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

This Note examines whether Facebook’s restrictions on its users’ posts are subject to Sherman Act § 2. This Note looks at the economic activity generated by social media activity and argues that posts are commerce. While this piece finds that current antitrust jurisprudence likely favors Facebook, an alternative approach sought by some antitrust scholars could influence judges to preclude the platform’s restrictions.

Compulsory Licensing: A Potential Solution To The Antitrust Dilemma Of Technology Standards Setting, Shen Peng

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

The Constitution grants patent owners exclusive rights over their inventions to “promote the Progress of Science.”1 This clause was drafted based on the belief that monetary incentives granted to the first inventor, such as the proceeds from selling and licensing the invention, will foster new ideas and accelerate innovation to the benefit of the public welfare. However, when the first inventor is the sole benefactor of the rewards from the innovation, subsequent innovation may be stifled.

For instance, the first person to invent the idea of a mobile phone but lacking the right to use the underlying technologies essential to …