Law Commons^™

Slide To Unlock: Apple-Samsung, Alice, And The Need For Clarity In Assessing Patent-Eligibility Under Section 101 For Touchscreen Software Patents, Tucker J. Mckinley

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Stop In The Name Of The Pto! A Review Of The Fresenius Saga And Pto-Judicial Interplay, Wayne A. Kalkwarf

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

The Rule Of Reason And The Scope Of The Patent, Herbert Hovenkamp

San Diego Law Review

For a century-and-a-half, the Supreme Court has described perceived abuses of patents as conduct that reaches "beyond the scope of the patent." That phrase, which evokes an image of boundary lines in real property, was applied to both government and private activity and came to have many different meanings. Sometimes it was used offensively to conclude that certain patent uses were unlawful because they extended beyond the scope of the patent. Later it came to be used defensively as well, to characterize activities as lawful if they did not extend beyond the patent's scope. In the first half of the …

Freedom Of Expression And Morality-Based Impediments To The Enforcement Of Intellectual Property Rights, Marc J. Randazza

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Bayh–Dole Act & Public Rights In Federally Funded Inventions: Will The Agencies Ever Go Marching In?, Ryan Whalen

Northwestern University Law Review

For over thirty years, the Bayh–Dole Act has granted federal agencies the power to force the recipients of federal research funding to license the resulting inventions to third parties. Despite having this expansive power, no federal agency has ever seen fit to utilize it. This Note explores why Bayh–Dole march-in rights have never been used, and proposes reforms that would help ensure that, in the instances when they are most required, the public is able to access the inventions it bankrolled.

There have been five documented march-in petitions since the Bayh–Dole Act was passed into law. Each petition was dismissed …

When Tigers Bare Teeth: A Qualitative Study Of University Patent Enforcement, Jacob H. Rooksby

Akron Law Review

Part I provides a brief background on patent infringement litigation involving university plaintiffs, including information on the activity’s costs, historical incidence, and how leading voices within the technology transfer community view the activity. Part II details the methodology used in the study conducted for this article. It describes the research questions that guided the study, its theoretical framework, information on participants and how they were selected for inclusion, and other information concerning data collection. Finally, Part III presents and discusses the study’s findings, which are arrayed thematically.

Trade Secrets Registry, Chagai Vinizky

Pace Law Review

The present article considers four aspects in which the trade secret method is less efficient than the patents method: litigation costs, transaction costs, financing costs, and employment costs. The main part of the article is devoted to the proposal of establishing a particular type of trade secrets registry, with the intention that it will reduce the above-mentioned costs and will improve the efficiency of the trade secret method. I propose a structure for the registration of trade secrets that is likely to solve most of the problems left unresolved by the escrow companies and the Indonesian legislation. A trade secret …

The New Plague: False Claims Liability Based On Inequitable Conduct During Patent Prosecution, Gregory Michael, William J. Newsom, Matthew Avery

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

In January 2009, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals filed a first of its kind qui tam suit on behalf of the federal government and several states alleging that its competitor, Aventis Pharma, violated the Federal False Claims Act (FCA) when it fraudulently acquired a patent and then overcharged the government for its patented drug. By utilizing a fraudulently acquired patent to elevate the price of Lovenox, a drug for treating deep-vein thrombosis, Amphastar alleged that Aventis had overcharged the government for every Lovenox pill purchased with government funds, including all prescriptions funded in part by Medicare or other federal insurance programs. The FCA …

The Effect Of Economic Crises On Patenting Activity Across Countries, Daniel Benoliel, Michael Gishboliner

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

This article offers a conceptual and empirical contribution regarding the effect of economic crises on patenting activity across countries. It does so in the midst of the predominant general view that economic crises flatly chill patenting activity for all countries alike.

Financial crisis literature commonly assumes that, during global financial crises, private enterprises consequently tend to retreat to the safety of their domestic markets. These enterprises presumably react this way because of the lesser familiarity of foreign markets, the currency risks involved in international investment, and the uncertainties regarding the issue of how states will treat foreign assets.

This article …

Open Source Business Models And Synthetic Biology, Tej Singh

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

The software industry has successfully utilized open source business models namely with software such as Android and Linux. Open source business models allow individuals to collaborate and share information without fear that the shared information will be commercially misused. Given the similarities between software source code and genetic sequences, innovators in the field of synthetic biology feel that open source business models can help further innovation for synthetic biology in a similar manner. However, when determining whether to join an open source project, practitioners must first identify if such a project will be beneficial to their goals. This Comment discuss …

A Path Toward An Increased Role For The United States In Patent Infringement Litigation, Caroline M. Turner

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

A number of major statutory schemes implicate federal interests but do not provide for explicit authority for the United States to bring lawsuits for damages or to obtain injunctive relief. The patent statutes provide that the patentee may sue in the case of infringement, and court decisions have extended that right to certain licensees. Accordingly, the United States has participated in cases in which it is not a co-patentee or licensee only as an amicus. Yet the government arguably has an interest in intervening in or instituting, as a co-plaintiff, infringement cases involving certain patents. Recent scholarship has renewed attention …

Enabling Patentless Innovation, Clark D. Asay

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Is A Patent Exhausted? Licensing Patents On A Claim-By-Claim Basis, Lucas Dahlin

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The patent exhaustion doctrine is meant to protect legitimate purchasers of patented items from post-sale restrictions imposed by patent owners. The courts, however, have recently expanded the doctrine of patent exhaustion by holding that the sale of a device which “partially” practices a patent exhausts that patent in its entirety. This holding essentially precludes patent owners from licensing their patents on a claim-by-claim basis. As inventions become more complex and require more parties working in concert to bring an idea to market, the inability to license patents on a claim-by-claim basis will lead to inventors being unable to fully monetize …

The Federal Question In Patent-License Cases, Amelia Smith Rinehart

Indiana Law Journal

The patent law has long recognized a patent owner’s ability to license some interest in the patent by granting to others permission to tread upon the patent owner’s property rights without legal consequence. When one of the parties to a patent license decides to seek remedies from the other party for a license harm, the resulting litigation may be a patent-infringement case with a contract issue or a contract case with a patent issue. In most cases, the patent owner brings her suit against the licensee in federal court, alleging that the licensee breached the license contract and, as a …

A Pasture Theory Of Creative Controls: A New Approach To Copyright And Patent Subject Matter Overgrowth, Maximilian Meese

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Problem With Frand: How The Licensing Commitments Of Standard-Setting Organizations Result In The Misvaluing Of Patents, David Arsego

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Standard-setting organizations (SSOs) are bodies that oversee the development of technical standards. Technical standards are common technological designs that are used across a variety of platforms, for instance LTE, which is utilized throughout the mobile phone industry. Members of SSOs contribute different pieces of technology to an ultimate design, and if a patent covers the technology, it is called a standard-essential patent (SEP). SSOs require their members to license these patents to each other on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms. This Note analyzes the FRAND requirement and the different ways that courts and private parties interpret it. The ambiguity …

A Market Reliance Theory For Frand Commitments And Other Patent Pledges, Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Review

Patent holders are, with increasing frequency, making public promises to refrain from asserting patents under certain conditions, or to license patents on terms that are “fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory” (FRAND). These promises or “patent pledges” generally precede formal license agreements and other contracts, but are nevertheless intended to induce the market to make expenditures and adopt common technology platforms without the fear of patent infringement. But despite their increasing prevalence, current contract, property, and antitrust law theories used to explain and enforce patent pledges have fallen short. Thus, a new theory is needed to secure the market-wide benefits that patent …