Deserving to Own Intellectual Property
My project in this Article is to examine the notion that people might deserve to own the products of their intellectual labor in an especially strong way-stronger than any way [...]
An Economic Review of the Patent System
The patent system has, from its inception, involved a basic economic inconsistency. In a free-enterprise economy dedicated to competition, we have chosen, not only to tolerate but to encourage, individual [...]
Patent Renewal Data
In many countries, including recently the United States, holders of patents must pay a renewal fee to keep their patents in force. If that fee is not paid in any [...]
Patent Theory versus Patent Law
According to the economic theory of patents, patents are needed so that pioneer firm have time to recoup their sunk costs of research and development. The key element in the [...]
The Patent Litigation Explosion
This Article provides the first look at patent litigation hazards for public firms during the 1980s and 1990s. Litigation is more likely when prospective plaintiffs acquire more patents, when firms [...]
The Direct Costs from NPE Disputes
In the past, “non-practicing entities” (NPEs), popularly known as “patent trolls”, have helped small inventors profit from their inventions. Is this true today or, given the unprecedented levels of NPE [...]
Trolls and Other Patent Inventions: Economic History and the Patent Controversy in the Twenty-First Century
The most significant changes to the patent and innovation system in the past two centuries have been, or are in the process of being, implemented in the United States today. [...]
Benefits of Patent Jury Trials for Commercializing Innovation
The U.S. patent system has long depended on trials before lay judges and lay juries for adjudicating patent disputes. Many think that reliance on lay judges and juries is a [...]
Patents at Issue: The Data Behind the Patent Troll Debate
The debate over “patent trolls” is raging at full tilt and its fury is stoked by fundamental questions about patent assertion. Both sides are struggling to understand which patent assertion [...]
Licensing Acquired Patents
Patents have always been licensed. Patents have always been acquired. Patents have even been acquired for the purpose of licensing new entrants. In short, there have always been secondary markets. [...]