Law Commons^™

Elementary And Persistent Errors In The Economic Analysis Of Intellectual Property, Edmund W. Kitch

Vanderbilt Law Review

The literature on the economic analysis of intellectual property rights evidences a broad scholarly consensus on a number of central and important issues. First, intellectual property rights en- able economic actors to capture some of the benefits of the investment they make in establishing a good reputation, creating expressive works, and inventing new and improved technology. Absent intellectual property rights, copiers are free to take for themselves a significant part of the economic benefit generated by these types of investment and to undermine the incentive to make these in- vestments in the first place. Second, the investment activities induced by …

An Unhurried View Of Private Ordering In Information Transactions, Yochai Benkler

Vanderbilt Law Review

We stand at an unprecedented moment in the history of exclusive private rights in information ("EPRIs").' Technology has made it possible, it seems, to eliminate to a large extent one aspect of what makes information a public good-its nonexcludability. A series of laws-most explicitly the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") and the Uniform Computers Information Transactions Act ("UCITA")-are building on new technologies for controlling individual uses of information goods to facilitate a perfect enclosure of the information environment.

The purpose of this Essay is to explain why economic justifications interposed in favor of this aspect of the enclosure movement are, …

Lessons From Studying The International Economics Of Intellectual Property Rights

Vanderbilt Law Review

When the Uruguay Round negotiations began in 1986, the subject of intellectual property rights ("IPRs") was completely unfamiliar to international trade economists. Presumably the area was ignored because global trade policy concerns had not moved into questions of domestic business regulation. Even today, readers will search in vain for serious treatments of the trade implications of exclusive rights to intellectual property ("IP") in international economics textbooks.

Despite this general inattention, a small but growing literature has emerged in which trade economists have framed specific questions and applied theory and statistical analysis to them. This literature has advanced the understanding of …

Are We Overprotecting Code? Thoughts On First-Generation Internet Law, Orin S. Kerr

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Available State Remedies" And The Fourteenth Amendment: Comments On Florida Prepaid V. College Savings Bank, Michael L. Wells

Scholarly Works

In Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank, decided during the Supreme Court's October 1998 Term, the specific point at issue was the scope of Congress's authority under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to impose liability for damages on state governments. In the Patent Remedy Act, Congress had abrogated the states' sovereign immunity from claims of patent infringement. College Savings Bank argued for the validity of the statute on the grounds that patents are property; that patent infringements are deprivations of property; and that the statute simply and appropriately provides a remedy for deprivations of …

Separating Marketing Innovation From Actual Invention: A Proposal For A New, Improved, Lighter And Better-Tasting Form Of Patent Protection, Ann Bartow

Ann Bartow

This Article suggests that commercial entities sometimes obtain patents for reasons unrelated to securing profitable technological monopolies. Patents, especially those with narrow scopes that are easily designed around, may be obtained to disadvantage competitors or to make the patent holder appear innovative, rather than to fence off an invention for commercial exploitation. Patents obtained for nontraditional reasons - denoted leverage and keeping up appearances patents in this Article - may represent highly inefficient uses of both public and private resources. To solve some of these efficiency problems, the author proposes creating a second-tier Origination Patent option, which would offer patentees …

En Banc Review, Horror Pleni, And The Resolution Of Patent Law Conflicts, William C. Rooklidge, Matthew F. Weil

Santa Clara Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Problematic Pat On The Back For The Pto: Dickinson V. Zurko, Jeffrey C. Metzcar

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

On Courts Herding Cats: Contending With The "Written Description" Requirement (And Other Unruly Patent Disclosure Doctrines), Mark D. Janis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Inter Partes Patent Reexamination, Mark D. Janis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.