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Untapped Inventive Potential In U.S. Communities, Michael Meehan
Untapped Inventive Potential In U.S. Communities, Michael Meehan
Michael Meehan PhD
This paper combines the 2000 U.S. Census data and the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Patent Citation Data File in order to analyze how certain community-level population and community factors correlate with overall patenting and relative rates of assigned and unassigned patenting. Among the interesting findings discussed are that, in addition to the fact that overall patenting increased with higher populations of employed people, higher populations of people with either terminal undergraduate or master’s degrees, and higher median income, the overall rates of patenting decreased, and did not merely remain the level, as the other sectors of a communities’ …
Increasing Certainty And Harnessing Private Information In The U.S. Patent System: A Proposal For Reform, Michael Meehan
Increasing Certainty And Harnessing Private Information In The U.S. Patent System: A Proposal For Reform, Michael Meehan
Michael Meehan PhD
Nearly half of litigated patents are invalidated. Because of this, and in order to reduce the number of “bad patents,” commentators and industry members have called for reforms to increase certainty in the patent system. Many have also proposed reforms that meet the varied needs of different industries. This paper responds to these prior proposals. The paper also suggests reforms to the patent system that are designed to meet the varied needs of different industries, primarily using pharmaceutical and computer industries as examples. The four reforms proposed are: allowing varied amounts of scrutiny in patent examination, pre-litigation claim scope hearings, …