Digital Commons Network^™

Give Me Equity Or Give Me Death - The Role Of Competition And Compensation In Building Silicon Valley, Richard A. Booth

Faculty Scholarship

In this essay, I argue that the preeminence of Silicon Valley as an incubator of technology companies is attributable to equity compensation. Ronald Gilson, relying on the work of AnnaLee Saxenian and others who have noted the tendency of Silicon Valley employees to job hop, has suggested that California law prohibiting the enforcement of non-compete agreements was a major factor in the rise of Silicon Valley (and the demise of Route 128). I extend this line of thought by suggesting that California employers may have relied on equity compensation as a substitute way to bind employees. I argue further that …

Beijing Court Orders Ministry Of Finance To Rule On Supplier's Complaints, But Skirts Broader Issue Of Schism In China's Procurement Supervision, Daniel J. Mitterhoff

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Value Of U.S. Patents By Owner And Patent Characteristics, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

This paper uses renewal data to estimate the value of U.S. patents, controlling for patent and owner characteristics. Estimates of U.S. patent value are substantially larger than estimates for European patents, however, the ratio of U.S. patent value to R&D for firms is only about 3%. Patents issued to small patentees are much less valuable than those issued to large corporations, perhaps reflecting imperfect markets for technology. Litigated patents are more valuable, as are highly cited patents. However, patent citations explain little variance in value, suggesting limits to their use as a measure of patent quality.

Oclc: Worldcat Collection Analysis Service And The Desert States Law Library Consortium, Michelle Rigual

Faculty Scholarship

Looking and benefits and best practices of WorldCat Collection Analysis in a subject-specific consortium.

In November, 2005, the eight libraries of the Desert States Law Library Consortium (University of New Mexico, University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of Colorado, University of Denver, University of Utah, Brigham Young, and University of Nevada Las Vegas) licensed OCLC's WorldCat Collection Analysis Service (WCA). WCA is designed to provide objective information concerning the makeup of a library's collection, including subject coverage, age of materials, languages of publication and material types and audience level. Multi-institution comparisons provide detail and summary views of how two …

Graded Interface Models For More Accurate Determination Of Van Der Waals-London Dispersion Interactions Across Grain Boundaries, Roger H. French

Faculty Scholarship

Attractive van der Waals–London dispersion interactions between two half crystals arise from local physical property gradients within the interface layer separating the crystals. Hamaker coefficients and London dispersion energies were quantitatively determined for Σ5 and near-∑13 grain boundaries in SrTiO3 by analysis of spatially resolved valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy (VEELS) data. From the experimental data, local complex dielectric functions were determined, from which optical properties can be locally analyzed. Both local electronic structures and optical properties revealed gradients within the grain boundary cores of both investigated interfaces. The results show that even in the presence of atomically structured grain boundary …

Neuromechanics Of Multifunctionality During Rejection In Aplysia Californica, Hui Ye, Douglas W. Morton, Hillel J. Chiel

Faculty Scholarship

How are the same muscles and neurons used to generate qualitatively different behaviors? We studied this question by analyzing the biomechanical and neural mechanisms of rejection responses in the marine mollusk Aplysia californica and compared these mechanisms with those used to generate swallowing responses (Ye et al., 2006). During rejection, the central grasper of the feeding structure closes to push inedible food out of the buccal cavity. This contrasts with swallowing, during which the grasper is open as it moves toward the jaws (protracts). We examined how the shape change of the grasper during rejection mechanically reconfigured the surrounding musculature. …

Bend-Induced Melting Of The Smectic-�� Phase: Analogy To A Type-I Superconductor, Ruiting Wang, Ishtiaque M. Syed, Giovanni Carbone, Rolfe G. Petschek, Charles Rosenblatt

Faculty Scholarship

Using an atomic force microscope to nanopattern a substrate for liquid crystal alignment, a bend distortion is imposed on a liquid crystal. In regions of large bend the smectic-A phase melts into the nematic phase, and the width of the melted region is measured as a function of temperature. The results are consistent with type-I superconducting (nematic-smectic-A) behavior, wherein a large magnetic field (bend or twist distortion) induces an order to disorder transition. A model that accounts for non-mean-field behavior is presented.

Enron’S Houdini – How They (Almost) Mastered The Illusion Of Prosperity And Profitability, Neal F. Newman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

American Wartime Values In Historical Perspective: Full-Employment Mobilization Or Business As Usual, Timothy A. Canova

Faculty Scholarship

This paper explores the range of values implicated by war and compares today's dominant values with those that prevailed during previous American wars, with a particular emphasis on the World War Two and early Cold War period. War is related to values, and as economists like to remind us, what we value becomes apparent in the movement of people and prices. Part I of this Article considers the moral, ethical and monetary values that prevailed throughout the 1940's and early 1950's. The normative threads that kept the World War Two effort on track were those of mobilization and shared sacrifice. …

Google The Gozerian And Fair Use Slimed: Copyright Again In The Technocrat's Den, Brian Sites

Faculty Scholarship

This article considers the fair use doctrine as it applies to Google's Library Search Project and both predicts and advocates for a finding of fair use. Part I briefly reviews the past by considering the pertinent history of the fair use doctrine. It also explains the details of the current suit over Google's Library Project. Part II moves on to consider the current state of fair use analysis by reviewing 110 fair use cases and conducting simple statistical analyses. It then explains and applies the fair use doctrine to Google's project. Part III considers cases frequently compared to Google's and …

Chasing The Illusory Pot Of Gold At The End Of The Rainbow: Negligence And Strict Liability In Design Defect Litigation, Aaron D. Twerski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Taxing Services Under The Eu Vat And Japanese Consumption Tax: A Comparative Assessment Of New Eu Place Of Taxation Rules For Services And Intangibles, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Place of taxation rules are the seminal cross-jurisdictional provisions of any consumption tax regime. They determine where among competing jurisdictions a particular service is taxed. They are not important for transactions that are restricted to a single jurisdiction and to businesses or individuals belonging to that jurisdiction. However, when two or more jurisdictions are involved, these are the essential tools for revenue allocation and avoidance of double taxation.

It is therefore of considerable importance to Japanese businesses and consumers when the European Union (EU) undertakes a wholesale revision of the place of supply rules for services and intangibles. The European …

Digital Consumption Tax (D-Ct), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Modern technology is dramatically changing the way consumption taxes are collected, but it is also changing the way policymakers assess the operation and impact of these taxes. Whether the design is a standard credit-invoice value added tax (VAT) of European design, or a retail sales tax (RST) of American design, or the credit subtraction VAT without invoices type of consumption tax (CT) of Japanese design, technology is having a profound impact.

Government certified transaction software is in place in the United States. The Streamlined Sales Tax offers taxpayers in 18 states the option of having their retail sales tax determined …

Anticircumvention And Anti-Anticircumvention, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In today's debate on digital rights management systems, there is a considerable divide between the rights holders, their investors and representatives on the one hand and academics, consumer advocates, and civil libertarians on the other. These two groups often talk past each other, concocting their own doomsday scenarios while arguing for laws and policies that vindicate their positions. Unfortunately, neither side has sufficient empirical evidence to either support its position or disprove its rivals'. As the digital economy grows, the debate intensifies, and the divide between the two sides widens. Today, there has emerged an urgent need to find the …

Synthesis And Characterization Of New Truxenones For Nonlinear Optical Applications, Giolin Mao, Kenneth D. Singer, Greg A. Wiggers, Rolfe G. Petschek

Faculty Scholarship

The synthesis of several new truxenones and one tris(dicyanomethylene) derivative substituted by different amines at positions 4, 9, and 14 is reported. A complete characterization of the NLO properties of representative derivatives was carried out by hyper-Rayleigh scattering; the major electronic effects and the influence of the structural modifications on the NLO properties have been examined. Because of their C3 symmetry and their large first hyperpolarizability, the chiral versions of the tris(dicyanomethylene) truxene derivatives are of interest for second-order nonlinear optics in uniaxially aligned chiral media.

Oy Canada! Trade's Non-Solution To "The Problem" Of U.S. Drug Prices, Daniel Gilman

Faculty Scholarship

Price disparities—price “differentiation” or “discrimination”—in pharmaceuticals markets have, in recent years, been the subject of much discussion. Price sensitivity should come as no surprise: Medicines play an increasingly important role in healthcare, while pharmaceuticals prices continue to rise. When prices vary greatly within markets or between neighboring markets, the pressure towards arbitrage is clear. This paper considers the question whether the re-importation of medicines from Canada or the EU is well advised and argues that it is not. First, we might reasonably question the extent to which we wish, as a matter of policy, to manage pharmaceuticals pricing; among other …

Conflict Of Laws (2006), James P. George, Anna K. Teller

Faculty Scholarship

States' and nations' laws collide when foreign factors appear in a lawsuit. Nonresident litigants, incidents outside the forum, parallel lawsuits, and judgments from other jurisdictions can create problems with personal jurisdiction, choice of law, and the recognition of foreign judgments. This Article reviews Texas conflicts cases from Texas state and federal courts during the Survey period from October 1, 2004 through November 31, 2005. The Article excludes cases involving federal-state conflicts, intrastate issues such as subject-matter jurisdiction and venue, and conflicts in time such as the applicability of prior or subsequent law within a state. State and federal cases are …

The Legacy Of John Graham: Strait-Jacketing Risk Assessment, Rena I. Steinzor

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Cause Lawyering And Social Movements: Can Solo And Small Firm Practitioners Anchor Social Movements?, Brenda Bratton Blom

Faculty Scholarship

As the demand for affordable legal services grows, law schools and the legal profession struggle to respond. By examining lessons from successful social movements in the last century, Cause Lawyering and Social Movements: Can Solo and Small Firm Practitioners anchor Social Movements looks at the Law School Consortium Project and its potential to participate in and anchor the social movements of our time. The collaboration of the law schools, networks of solo and small firm attorneys and activists at the local, regional and national level provide key elements for powerful change given the technological developments of the 21st century.

The "Branding Effect" Of Contracts, D. Gordon Smith

Faculty Scholarship

In his case study of the MasterCard IPO and its predecessor piece on the Google IPO, Victor Fleischer claims to find evidence of a branding effect of legal infrastructure. The branding effect is not aimed at reducing the potential for opportunism by a counterparty to a contract, but rather at increasing the attractiveness of a product to present and future users or improving the image of a company in the eyes of regulators, judges, and juries. In this essay commenting on Fleischer's work, I endorse the notion that deal structures have branding effects and position Fleischer's work within a larger …

Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Michael A. Millemann, Steven D. Schwinn

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, the co-authors argue that legal research and writing (LRW) teachers should use actual legal work to generate assignments. They recommend that clinical and LRW teachers work together to design, co-teach, and evaluate such courses. They describe two experimental courses they developed together and co-taught to support and clarify their arguments. They contend that actual legal work motivates students to learn the basic skills of research, analysis and writing, and thus helps to accomplish the primary goals of LRW courses. It also helps students to explore new dimensions of basic skills, including those related to the development and …

Dspace: One Schools' Use Of An Open Source Institutional Repository, Michelle Rigual

Faculty Scholarship

A variety of resources, both proprietary and open source, have evolved in recent years to enable the collection, preservation, indexing and distribution of digital work, as well as to provide communities for peer review of works in progress. These emerging technologies make it more feasible to advocate for open access to scholarly communication. This presentation discusses the movement toward open access to scholarly information, as colleges and universities struggle to gain more control over and retain more rights to their scholarly output, and the consequences of not doing so. The speaker will also describe the various options currently available for …

From Pirates To Partners (Episode Ii): Protecting Intellectual Property In Post-Wto China, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In "From Pirates to Partners: Protecting Intellectual Property in China in the Twenty-First Century," I criticized the ineffectiveness and short-sightedness of the American foreign intellectual property policy toward China. As I argued, the coercive approach taken by the U.S. administrations created a "cycle of futility" in which China and the United States repeatedly threatened each other with trade wars, only to back down in the eleventh hour with a compromise that did not provide sustained improvements in intellectual property protection.

Since I wrote that article five years ago, China has joined the WTO and undertook a complete overhaul of its …

Rethinking Spyware: Questioning The Propriety Of Contractual Consent To Online Surveillance, Wayne R. Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

The spyware epidemic has reached new heights on the Internet. Computer users are increasingly burdened with programs they did not knowingly or consciously install, which place strains on their computers' performance, and which also trigger annoying "pop-up" advertisements of products or services which have been determined to match the users' preferences. The users' purported preferences are determined, in turn, by the software continuously monitoring every move the consumer makes as she "surfs the Internet." The public overwhelmingly disapproves of spyware which is surreptitiously placed on computers in this manner, and also largely disapproves of the pop-up advertising paradigm. As a …

Grappling With The Regulatory Environment For Chinese Public Procurement, Daniel J. Mitterhoff

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Of The Inequals Of The Uruguay Round, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

Ten years ago, the TRIPs Agreement set a distinct tone in international law by requiring members to prioritize international trade obligations as a means to achieve national goals. Within the next five years, the AIDS crisis highlighted that compromising pressing national responsibilities - like a looming public health crisis - to fulfill international obligations may, in fact, detrimentally affect international trade. Meanwhile, access to medication continues to be an unresolved issue even as we celebrate the tenth anniversary of TRIPs and the end of the transitional period. This Article suggests that the success of TRIPs depends on its ability to …

The Scarlet Gene: Behavioral Genetics, Criminal Law, And Racial And Ethnic Stigma, Karen H. Rothenberg, Alice Wang

Faculty Scholarship

Imagine that a scientist from the state university asks you and your family to participate in a study on a particular gene variant associated with alcoholism. The project focuses on your ethnic group, the Tracy Islanders, who have a higher incidence of alcoholism, as well as a higher incidence of the gene variant, than the general population. You will not be informed whether you have the gene variant, but your participation in the study might help scientists develop drugs to help individuals control their addiction to alcohol. You have a family history of alcoholism, and you are concerned that your …

Trips And Its Discontents, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

The TRIPs Agreement was established at the ministerial meeting in Marrakesh in April 1994. Since its establishment, many less developed countries have become dissatisfied with the international intellectual property system. From their perspective, the system fails to take into consideration their needs, interests, and local conditions. The strong protection mandated by the Agreement also threatens their much-needed access to information, knowledge, and essential medicines.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the TRIPs Agreement. It provides an excellent opportunity to assess the Agreement's achievements and shortfalls, in particular its impact on the international community as well as on other areas …

Poisoning The Well: Law & Economics And Racial Inequality, Robert E. Suggs

Faculty Scholarship

The standard Law & Economics analysis of racial discrimination has stunted our thinking about race. Its early conclusion, that laws prohibiting racial discrimination were unnecessary and wasteful, discredited economic analysis of racial phenomena within the civil rights community. As a consequence we know little about the impact of racial discrimination on commercial transactions between business firms. Laws do not prohibit racial discrimination in transactions between business firms, and the disparity in business revenues between racial minorities and the white mainstream dwarfs disparities in income by orders of magnitude. This disparity in business revenues is a major factor in the persistence …

Neuromechanics Of Coordination During Swallowing In Aplysia Californica, Hui Ye, Douglas W. Morton, Hillel J. Chiel

Faculty Scholarship

Bernstein (1967) hypothesized that preparation of the periphery was crucial for correct responses to motor output. To test this hypothesis in a behaving animal, we examined the roles of two identified motor neurons, B7 and B8, which contribute to feeding behavior in the marine mollusk Aplysia californica. Neuron B7 innervates a hinge muscle and has no overt behavioral effect during smaller-amplitude (type A) swallows, because the hinge muscle is too short to exert force. Neuron B8 activates a muscle (I4) that acts solely to grasp material during type A swallows. During larger-amplitude (type B) swallows, the behavioral actions of both …