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Intellectual property

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When Second Comes First: Correcting Patent’S Poor Secondary Incentives Through An Optional Patent Purchase System, Jordan Barry Jan 2007

When Second Comes First: Correcting Patent’S Poor Secondary Incentives Through An Optional Patent Purchase System, Jordan Barry

ExpressO

As research has advanced, technologies have become more closely knit, and the relationships between them—both complementary and competitive—have become increasingly important. Unfortunately, the patent system’s use of monopoly power to reward innovators creates inefficient results by overly encouraging the development of substitute technologies and discouraging the development of complementary technologies. This paper explains how an optional patent purchase system could help ameliorate such problems and discusses the implications of such a system.


Law And The Science Of Networks: An Overview And An Application To The "Patent Explosion", Katherine J. Strandburg Aug 2006

Law And The Science Of Networks: An Overview And An Application To The "Patent Explosion", Katherine J. Strandburg

ExpressO

The network may be the metaphor of the present era. A network, consisting of “nodes” and “links,” may be a group of individuals linked by friendship; a group of computers linked by network cables; a system of roads or airline flights -- or another of a virtually limitless variety of systems of connected “things.” The past few years have seen an explosion of interest in “network science,” which seeks to move beyond metaphor to analysis in fields from physics to sociology. Network science highlights the role of relationship patterns in determining collective behavior. It underscores and begins to address the …


Risk Aversion And Rights Accretion In Intellectual Property Law, James Gibson Aug 2006

Risk Aversion And Rights Accretion In Intellectual Property Law, James Gibson

ExpressO

Intellectual property’s road to hell is paved with good intentions. Because liability is difficult to predict, intellectual property users often seek licenses even when proceeding without one might be permissible. Yet because the existence (vel non) of licensing markets plays a key role in determining the breadth of rights, these seemingly sensible licensing decisions eventually feed back into doctrine; the licensing itself becomes proof that the entitlement covers the use. Over time, then, public privilege recedes and rights expand, moving intellectual property’s ubiquitous gray areas into what used to be virgin territory--where risk aversion again creates licensing markets, which cause …


The (Intellectual Property Law &) Economics Of Innocent Fraud: The Ip & Development Debate, Peter Matthew Beattie Jun 2006

The (Intellectual Property Law &) Economics Of Innocent Fraud: The Ip & Development Debate, Peter Matthew Beattie

ExpressO

This note/essay examines the evidence on the effect of stronger IP laws introduced during the process of international IP law harmonization initiated by the TRIPS agreement, on the economic development of developing countries. It has been argued by proponents of harmonization that stronger IP laws will provide a needed boost to the economic development of developing (and even least-developed) countries. Critics of harmonization have argued that stronger IP laws will have the opposite effect. What has been largely overlooked in this debate is the strength of the evidentiary foundation upon which the arguments of both sides depend. Many of the …


Seventeen Famous Economists Weigh In On Copyright: The Role Of Theory, Empirics, And Network Effects, Stan Liebowitz, Stephen Margolis Sep 2004

Seventeen Famous Economists Weigh In On Copyright: The Role Of Theory, Empirics, And Network Effects, Stan Liebowitz, Stephen Margolis

ExpressO

The case of Eldred v. Ashcroft, which sought to have the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA, aka Sonny Bono Copyright Act) declared unconstitutional, was recently decided by the Supreme Court. A remarkable group of seventeen economists including five Noble laureates, representing a wide spectrum of opinion in economics, submitted an amicus curie brief in support of Eldred. The economists condemned CTEA on the grounds that the revenues earned during the extension are so heavily discounted that they have almost no value, while the extended protection of aged works creates immediate monopoly deadweight losses and increases the costs of creating new …