News and Commentary
Intellectual Asset Management published an article detailing how counting the number of patents to measure the quality of a patent portfolio is a misleading procedure for valuing intellectual property rights. The authors instead propose using patent citations as a more appropriate indicator of economic value; referencing a strong positive correlation that exists between the number of citations received and the importance of determining the patentability of subsequent innovations.
A recent blog post by John Cochrane argues that for China to pay the royalties on stolen intellectual property from the US, they would have to export more goods to American consumers- thus increasing the trade deficit and negating the stated purpose of the Trump administrations trade war.
A copyright controversy has emerged following the release of parody items showing the faces of Donald Trump and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s photoshopped on to an image of revolutionary marxist Che Guevara’s head. The current heirs to the iconic photo have issued a takedown demand to the company Liberty Maniacs, who responded that the First Amendment of the United States protects their right to parody.
Last week a judge imposed sanctions on attorney Richard Liebowitz in a case involving copyright infringement photos of model Emily Ratajkowski. The judge labeled Liebowitz a copyright troll, noting that he had filed 1,110 copyright lawsuits since 2016, and ordered him to pay the defendant’s reasonable attorney fees in the amount of $50,000.
Apple is facing two lawsuits, one from Aftechmobile alleging that the Shortcuts app infringes on its patent for mobile application development software. The other from Pinn, a manufacturer of clip-on wireless headphones, claiming that Apple’s AirPods infringe on it’s patent for a “personal wireless media station that includes a main body and wireless earbud”.
Led Zeppelin is going back to court to defend its “Stairway to Heaven” from allegations that it infringed on the band Spirit’s song “Taurus”.
New Research
The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College released a brief that outlines how Medicare Part D has put upward pressure on drug prices by barring generics from entering the market and boosting demand for brand name prescription drugs.
An NBER paper titled “Mandated Financial Reporting and Corporate Innovation” looks at the impact of reporting regulation on corporate innovation activity. The authors find forcing firms to publicly disclose their financial statements reduces incentives to innovate at the industry level, but at the same time increasing firm’s reliance on patent protection.
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