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Administrative Law

Tejas N. Narechania

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Patent Conflicts, Tejas N. Narechania Dec 2014

Patent Conflicts, Tejas N. Narechania

Tejas N. Narechania

Patent policy is typically thought to be the product of the Patent and Trademark Office, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and, in some instances, the Supreme Court. This simple topography, however, understates the extent to which outsiders can shape the patent regime. Indeed, a variety of administrative actors influence patent policy through the exercise of their regulatory authority and administrative power.
This Article offers a novel description of the ways in which nonpatent agencies intervene into patent policy. In particular, it examines agency responses to conflicts between patent and other regulatory aims, uncovering a relative preference for …

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Federal And State Authority For Network Neutrality And Broadband Regulation, Tejas N. Narechania Mar 2014

Federal And State Authority For Network Neutrality And Broadband Regulation, Tejas N. Narechania

Tejas N. Narechania

For the second time in less than four years, the D.C. Circuit has rebuffed the Federal Communications Commission’s attempt at imposing network neutrality rules on internet traffic. But in so doing, the D.C. Circuit affirmed the FCC’s theory of jurisdiction based on section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This ruling has the significant effect of transforming a questionable source of authority into what may become the Commission’s most significant font of regulatory power.

Surprisingly, section 706 seems to give the Commission the power to implement a slightly revised set of network neutrality rules. By narrowing the scope of …

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Sender Side Transmission Rules For The Internet, Tejas N. Narechania, Tim Wu Dec 2013

Sender Side Transmission Rules For The Internet, Tejas N. Narechania, Tim Wu

Tejas N. Narechania

In January 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the FCC's 2010 Open Internet Order, which contained the Commission's net neutrality rules. The Commission has since indicated that it will take up the D.C. Circuit's invitation to implement rules that, consistent with historic practice, meet the court’s test for preventing improper blocking and discrimination of Internet traffic. In this paper, we consider the Commission's options for a path forward under Title II of the Communications Act. We find that the FCC has at least two available paths. The first is predominantly legal: By adopting the …

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