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Full-Text Articles in Law
Patent Demands And Initial Public Offerings, Robin C. Feldman, Evan Frondorf
Patent Demands And Initial Public Offerings, Robin C. Feldman, Evan Frondorf
Robin C Feldman
Quantitative analysis of patent behavior is critical, as congressional and regulatory agencies consider the impact of patent trolling on modern markets. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that “non-practicing entities,” also known as “patent trolls,” specifically target companies for lawsuits, licensing demands, or other monetization activity as firms approach or complete major funding events, such as their initial public offering (IPO). To test this narrative, we survey in-house legal staff at companies that have recently gone public about their exposure to patent demands surrounding their first round of venture capital funding and their IPO. The study is one of the first attempts …
The Crispr Revolution: What Editing Human Dna Reveals About The Patent System’S Dna, Robin C. Feldman
The Crispr Revolution: What Editing Human Dna Reveals About The Patent System’S Dna, Robin C. Feldman
Robin C Feldman
Not since the invention that launched Genentech and the entire biotech industry has a life science invention offered such promise. If CRISPR lives up to that promise, the technology could well be one of the greatest life science inventions of all time. Gene editing techniques existed before, of course, but they were slow, inaccurate, and expensive. The CRISPR invention is like moving from the manual typewriter to modern word processing.
As we stand at this remarkable threshold, what of the patent system? Companies are racing to develop commercial applications for CRISPR, and researchers are using the technology, even though it …
Federalism, First Amendment & Patents: The Fraud Fallacy, Robin C. Feldman
Federalism, First Amendment & Patents: The Fraud Fallacy, Robin C. Feldman
Robin C Feldman
Few arguments echo as strongly throughout United States constitutional history as those related to the role of the states in the federal union. Shifting across time, the role of the states in general has moved from a model of dualism — characterized by a strict separation of federal and state dominion — to a model of overlapping and concurrent powers. In the modern context of overlapping powers, the preemption doctrine manages the intricate areas of overlap, with topics ranging from antitrust to immigration.
Yet the concept of federalism, as applied by the circuit courts in relation to patents, has traveled …
Do Patent Licensing Demands Mean Innovation?, Robin C. Feldman, Mark A. Lemley
Do Patent Licensing Demands Mean Innovation?, Robin C. Feldman, Mark A. Lemley
Robin C Feldman
A commonly offered justification for patent trolls or non-practicing entities (NPEs) is that they serve as a middleman, facilitating innovation and bringing new technology from inventors to those who can implement it. We survey those involved in patent licensing to see how often patent license demands actually led to innovation or technology transfer. We find that very few patent license demands actually lead to new innovation; most simply involve payment for the freedom to keep doing what the licensee was already doing. Surprisingly, this is true not only of NPE licenses but even of licenses from product-producing companies and universities. …