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What Happened To The Public’S Interest In Patent Law?, Kristen Jakobsen Osenga
What Happened To The Public’S Interest In Patent Law?, Kristen Jakobsen Osenga
Law Faculty Publications
Protecting intellectual property is the government’s most important tool to encourage innovation, as our country has understood since its founding. The Constitution provides for the grant of exclusive patent rights to “promote the progress of science and the useful arts.” Thomas Jefferson, who was initially skeptical of the value of patents, later remarked, “An Act of Congress authorising [sic] the issuing patents for new discoveries has given a spring to invention beyond my conception.” From the very first patent, issued in 1790, to the 10 millionth patent, issued in June 2018,4 the United States has seen remarkable amounts of invention …
Book Review: Beyond Intellectual Property: Matching Information Protection To Innovation, Kristen Osenga
Book Review: Beyond Intellectual Property: Matching Information Protection To Innovation, Kristen Osenga
Law Faculty Publications
William Kingston frames this book around a clearly stated premise: the focus of information protection regimes has shifted from benefiting the public to benefiting private individuals with interests in the game—and this shift is not good. Early on, protection of information was shaped by actors with no personal stake but rather a desire to encourage invention and innovation for the public good. These actors were primarily limited by constitutional provisions and bureaucratic inefficiencies. As time went on,and as information became a more important commodity, information protection schemes were fashioned, or perhaps twisted, by the parties that would derive the most …
Public Law Litigation And The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure, Carl W. Tobias
Public Law Litigation And The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure, Carl W. Tobias
Law Faculty Publications
The public interest litigant is no longer a nascent phenomenon in American jurisprudence. Born of the need of large numbers of people who individually lack the economic wherewithal or the logistical capacity to vindicate important social values or their own specific interests through the courts, these litigants now participate actively in much federal civil litigation: public law litigation. Despite the pervasive presence of public interest litigants, the federal judiciary has accorded them a mixed reception, particularly when applying the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Many federal courts have applied numerous Rules in ways that disadvantage public interest litigants, especially in …
Rule 19 And The Public Rights Exception To Party Joinder, Carl W. Tobias
Rule 19 And The Public Rights Exception To Party Joinder, Carl W. Tobias
Law Faculty Publications
The increasing number of "public interest" lawsuits suggests that federal courts increasingly will confront difficult party joinder questions posed by such litigation. These problems arise because entities not involved in the litigation may have interests that may be adversely affected by the litigation. The joinder issue presented by such cases is whether rule 19 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires that the suit be dismissed or whether the litigation can continue without joinder of the absent entities. Numerous courts have dealt with the question by creating a 'public rights exception," which permits the litigation to continue even without …