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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Market For Software Innovation Through The Lens Of Patent Licenses And Sales, Colleen V. Chien
The Market For Software Innovation Through The Lens Of Patent Licenses And Sales, Colleen V. Chien
Faculty Publications
Software innovation is transforming the US economy. Yet our understanding of how patents and patent transactions support this innovation is limited, in part because of a lack of public information about patent licenses and sales. Claims about the patent marketplace, for example, extolling the virtues of intermediaries like non-practicing entities, or questioning the social utility of ex post patent licenses, tend not to be grounded in empirical evidence. This article brings much-needed data to the policy debate by analyzing transactional data from several proprietary databases of patent licenses and transfers, and reporting several novel findings. First I find that, despite …
Comparative Patent Quality, Colleen Chien
Comparative Patent Quality, Colleen Chien
Faculty Publications
One of the most urgent problems with the US patent system is that there are too many patents of poor quality. Most blame the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – its mistakes, overly generous grant rate, and lack of consistency. But, the quality and quantity of patents in force is the product of three sets of decisions: to submit an application of certain quality (by the applicant), to grant the patent (by the patent office), and to renew a patent and keep it in force (by the applicant/patentee). Startling, there is no consensus way to measure patent quality. This …
Recalibrarting Patent Venue, Colleen V. Chien, Michael Risch
Recalibrarting Patent Venue, Colleen V. Chien, Michael Risch
Faculty Publications
For most of patent law’s 200-year plus history, the rule has been that patentholders are permitted to sue defendants only in the district they inhabit. In 1990, the Federal Circuit changed this by enlarging the scope of permissible venue to all districts with personal jurisdiction over the defendant. Since then, patentees have flocked to fewer districts, and in 2015, brought more than 40% of their cases in a single rural district with 1% of the US population, the Eastern District of Texas. Fueled in particular by concerns that non-practicing entities (NPEs), who bring the majority of cases in the Eastern …
Of Trolls, Davids, Goliaths, And Kings: Narratives And Evidence In The Litigation Of High-Tech Patents, Colleen V. Chien
Of Trolls, Davids, Goliaths, And Kings: Narratives And Evidence In The Litigation Of High-Tech Patents, Colleen V. Chien
Faculty Publications
While each patent dispute is unique, most fit the profile of one of a limited number of patent litigation stories. A dispute between an independent inventor and a large company, for instance, is often cast in "David v. Goliath" terms. When two large companies fight over patents, in contrast, they are said to be playing the "sport of kings." Some corporations engage in "defensive patenting" in order to deter others from suing them. Patent licensing and enforcement entities who sue have been labeled "trolls." Finally, observers of the patent system call the use of patent litigation to impose or exploit …
Cheap Drugs At What Price To Innovation: Does The Compulsory Licensing Of Pharmaceuticals Hurt Innovaton?, Colleen V. Chien
Cheap Drugs At What Price To Innovation: Does The Compulsory Licensing Of Pharmaceuticals Hurt Innovaton?, Colleen V. Chien
Faculty Publications
The patent system is built on the premise that patents provide an incentive for innovation by offering a limited monopoly to patentees. The inverse assumption that removing patent protection will hurt innovation has largely prevented the widespread use of compulsory licensing-the practice of allowing third parties to use patented inventions without patentee permission. In this Article, I empirically test this assumption. I compare rates of patenting and other measures of inventive activity before and after six compulsory licenses over drug patents issued in the 1980s and 1990s. As reported below, observe no uniform decline in innovation by companies affected by …
The Anti-Monopoly Origins Of The Patent And Copyright Clause, Tyler T. Ochoa, Mark Rose
The Anti-Monopoly Origins Of The Patent And Copyright Clause, Tyler T. Ochoa, Mark Rose
Faculty Publications
The British experience with patents and copyrights prior to 1787 is instructive as to the context within which the Framers drafted the Patent and Copyright Clause. The 1624 Statute of Monopolies, intended to curb royal abuse of monopoly privileges, restricted patents for new inventions to a specified term of years. The Stationers' Company, a Crown-chartered guild of London booksellers, continued to hold a monopoly on publishing, and to enforce censorship laws, until 1695. During this time, individual titles were treated as perpetual properties held by booksellers. In 1710, however, the Statute of Anne broke up these monopolies by imposing strict …