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Full-Text Articles in Law
Patent Law’S Purposeful Ambiguity, Craig Allen Nard
Patent Law’S Purposeful Ambiguity, Craig Allen Nard
Faculty Publications
The ambiguity of language is an unremarkable, yet persistent force within our legal system. In the context of patent law, ambiguity presents a particularly acute dilemma; namely, while describing technological innovations is a salient feature of the patent system, affecting the validity and scope of one’s property right, the blunt nature of language makes this task particularly difficult. This paper argues to address this vexing fixture, patent doctrine purposely embraces ambiguity as a linguistic accommodation that provides measured flexibility for actors to claim and describe their innovations. It should not be surprising, therefore, that some of patent law’s most venerable …
Legal Fictions And The Role Of Information In Patent Law, Craig Allen Nard
Legal Fictions And The Role Of Information In Patent Law, Craig Allen Nard
Faculty Publications
The common law plays a prominent role in the development of American patent law. Judicial stewardship of the patent space can be seen as an institutional advantage, one that compares favorably to punctuated, and potentially more distortive or inartful, congressional action. The common law allows for a certain flexibility, and despite its deep allegiance to tradition, crust forms more readily on statutory law than the common law. One of the tools that reflects this institutional litheness is the use of legal fictions, which have been employed by judges in various areas of the law seemingly since the beginning of the …
Introduction: The Law, Technology & The Arts Symposium: The Past, Present And Future Of The Federal Circuit, Craig Allen Nard
Introduction: The Law, Technology & The Arts Symposium: The Past, Present And Future Of The Federal Circuit, Craig Allen Nard
Faculty Publications
Introduction to The Law, Technology & the Arts Symposium: The Past, Present and Future of the Federal Circuit, Cleveland, Ohio.
In Defense Of Geographic Disparity, Craig Allen Nard
In Defense Of Geographic Disparity, Craig Allen Nard
Faculty Publications
A response to Margo A. Bagley, Patently Unconstitutional: The Geographical Limitation on Prior Art in a Small World, 87 Minn. L. Rev. 679 (2003).
Toward A Cautious Approach To Obeisance: The Role Of Scholarship In Patent Law Jurisprudence, Craig Allen Nard
Toward A Cautious Approach To Obeisance: The Role Of Scholarship In Patent Law Jurisprudence, Craig Allen Nard
Faculty Publications
This article explores the role of secondary authority in patent law jurisprudence. I reviewed every Federal Circuit published opinion from 1982 (the year of the court's creation) to 2000. I discuss the results of my empirical research and explore why scholarship has a place in the Federal Circuit's patent law jurisprudence. I ultimately urge the court to be cautiously more receptive to secondary authority when deciding patent cases.
Process Considerations In The Age Of Markman And Mantras, Craig Allen Nard
Process Considerations In The Age Of Markman And Mantras, Craig Allen Nard
Faculty Publications
This article asserts that although notions of uniformity and certainty have always been part of patent law parlance, since the Federal Circuit's decision in Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., these noble ends have achieved mantra status. In Markman, the Federal Circuit, in the name of uniformity and certainty, characterized claim interpretation as a question of law subject to de novo review, thus positioning itself as the arbiter of claim meaning. If the Federal Circuit is unwilling to exercise greater obeisance toward district court claim interpretations, this article argues that to achieve uniformity and certainty in the context of de novo …
A Theory Of Claim Interpretation, Craig Allen Nard
A Theory Of Claim Interpretation, Craig Allen Nard
Faculty Publications
This article explores the proper scope of judicial power in patent law by focusing on the Federal Circuit's theories of claim interpretation. A study of the court's claim interpretation jurisprudence reveals two schools of interpretation. I characterize these approaches as (1) hypertextualism, which is the predominant interpretative theory; and (2) pragmatic textualism, which is gradually asserting itself. The hypertextualist judge has an expansive view of judicial power, characterizing claim interpretation as a question of law subject to de novo review. This highly formalistic approach stresses textual fidelity and internal textual coherence, but eschews extrinsic evidence as an interpretive tool, portraying …
Certainty, Fence Building, And The Useful Arts, Craig Allen Nard
Certainty, Fence Building, And The Useful Arts, Craig Allen Nard
Faculty Publications
In "Certainty, Fence Building, and the Useful Arts," 74 Ind. L.J. 759-800 (1999), the author, based upon contract theory, economic theory, and an empirical survey of federal district court judges, proposes that the United States adopt a patent opposition proceeding. Whereas United States trademark law allows for the publication of and third-party opposition to the issuance of a federal trademark, American patent law, unlike European and Asian patent systems, allows for no such proceeding regarding the patentability of a claimed invention before issuance.
Legitimacy And The Useful Arts, Craig Allen Nard
Legitimacy And The Useful Arts, Craig Allen Nard
Faculty Publications
The fundamental question this Article addresses is who should be primarily responsible for making patent validity determinations: the courts5 or the Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”)?6 Which entity *517 would best serve the constitutional goal of promoting the progress of the useful arts?
Deference, Defiance, And Useful Arts, Craig Allen Nard
Deference, Defiance, And Useful Arts, Craig Allen Nard
Faculty Publications
My objective in this Article is to demonstrate that the PTO's patentability determinations are questions of policy and, therefore, the Federal Circuit's standards of review, as applied to these determinations, are unsound. With respect to the Commissioner's statutory interpretations, I intend to demonstrate that the court's “traditional factors of statutory construction,” which are used in such a way as to avoid deferring to the PTO, result in irrational decisions, or at the very least, an alternative theory of interpretation no more convincing than that put forth by the PTO. My principle assertion, grounded in both doctrine and policy, is that …