Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law and Economics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Antitrust and Trade Regulation

Patents

SelectedWorks

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law and Economics

Intellectual Property As An ‘Investment’ In International Law: A Question Of Access To Medicines Vs Access To Justice, Christopher Wadlow Jan 2011

Intellectual Property As An ‘Investment’ In International Law: A Question Of Access To Medicines Vs Access To Justice, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

No abstract provided.


The Great Pharmaceutical Patent Robbery, And The Curious Case Of The Chemical Foundation, Christopher Wadlow Jan 2010

The Great Pharmaceutical Patent Robbery, And The Curious Case Of The Chemical Foundation, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

In 1918, the United States confiscated virtually all German-owned intellectual property assets within its jurisdiction. Out of 6,000 patents in the chemical field, 4,500 were assigned for a very modest consideration to an newly-established entity, the Chemical Foundation, which was incorporated with the objective of licensing and managing them for the benefit of the United States chemical industry. This article describes the origins and activities of the Chemical Foundation, and considers whether it provides a useful model, or at least useful lessons, for the collective management of patents today.


Of Mice And Men: Why An Anticommons Has Not Emerged In The Biotechnological Realm, Chester J. Shiu Jan 2009

Of Mice And Men: Why An Anticommons Has Not Emerged In The Biotechnological Realm, Chester J. Shiu

Chester J Shiu

In 1998 Michael Heller and Rebecca Eisenberg posited that excessive patenting of fundamental biomedical innovations might create a “tragedy of the anticommons.” A decade later, their dire predictions have not come to pass, an outcome which calls much of the legal scholarship on the topic into question. This Article proposes that legal commentators’ theoretical arguments have largely ignored two very important factors. First, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—the single most important actor in the biomedical research industry—has played an active role in keeping the biomedical research domain open. In particular, regardless of what the current patent regime may theoretically …