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Full-Text Articles in Law
Regulating Three-Dimensional Printing: The Converging Worlds Of Bits And Atoms, Lucas S. Osborn
Regulating Three-Dimensional Printing: The Converging Worlds Of Bits And Atoms, Lucas S. Osborn
San Diego Law Review
Three-dimensional printing (3D printing) is invading society, bringing with it the ability to “print” objects (atoms) from computer files (bits). Posting a computer-assisted design (CAD) file of an object—an illegal gun or an infringing shoe—to the Internet essentially makes the physical object available to the world. The technology portends dramatic shifts in manufacturing, trade, medicine, and more and will require a legal regime that integrates the legal concepts governing the digital and physical worlds. This Article represents the first broad descriptive and normative study of this technology and its multivalent effects on law. The Article separates truly novel legal issues …
Torts And Innovation, Gideon Parchomovsky, Alex Stein
Torts And Innovation, Gideon Parchomovsky, Alex Stein
Michigan Law Review
This Essay exposes and analyzes a hitherto overlooked cost of tort law: its adverse effect on innovation. Tort liability for negligence, defective products, and medical malpractice is determined by reference to custom. We demonstrate that courts' reliance on custom and conventional technologies as the benchmark of liability chills innovation and distorts its path. Specifically, recourse to custom taxes innovators and subsidizes replicators of conventional technologies. We explore the causes and consequences of this phenomenon and propose two possible ways to modify tort law in order to make it more welcoming to innovation.