This essay discusses the bold and intriguing theory that our patent system’s problems can be corrected through private cooperation. According to some commentators, cooperative efforts such as patent pools, research consortia, and similar licensing collectives are proof that market participants have the wisdom and the will to collectively disarm their… Read More »
We award patents to inventors because we hope to encourage new ideas. It is curious, then, that patent law itself purports to pay no attention to which aspects of a patentee’s invention are in fact new. A patented invention is legally defined by its claims—written definitions of the invention. And… Read More »
Intellectual property (IP) law in the United States is off course and headed onto the shoals of ever-increasing protectionism. Copyright law, in particular, has come uncoupled from its constitutionally defined purpose. A tightly circumscribed right intended to incentivize creativity and the spread of knowledge has instead become an ever-expanding monopoly… Read More »
The world is full of reminders that we are surrounded by patented inventions. Everyday products from coffee cup lids to cell phones bear the markings of United States patent numbers. For example, Texas Instruments (TI) stamped the back of its popular TI-83 Plus graphing calculator with three patent numbers. By… Read More »
The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to promulgate laws “[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Within the same clause and with the identical purpose of promoting innovation, Congress… Read More »
In recent decades, research in behavioral psychology and experimental economics has undermined some of the fundamental principles of the “rational choice” model of neoclassical economics—in particular, the assumption that decision-makers have stable preferences. A large volume of data shows that people’s preferences are subject to a variety of cognitive biases… Read More »
Patenting is the procedure by which novel scientific inventions become protected by an intellectual property right. The United States Constitution provides the foundation for patent law and vests the power and duty of its implementation in Congress. Congress fulfilled its constitutional duty by granting inventors an intellectual property right… Read More »
May a dominant firm refuse to share its intellectual property (IP) with its rivals? This question lies at the heart of a highly divisive, international debate concerning the proper application of the antitrust laws. In this short Essay, we consider a profound, yet previously unaddressed, incongruity underlying the controversy. Specifically,… Read More »
The Maine lobster fishery is a successful example of a managed natural resource commons. To ensure an ongoing supply of lobsters in the face of threats to the fishery from unregulated over-fishing, over a period of years Maine lobster fishermen crafted a set of formal and informal rules to determine… Read More »
In 2006, thousands of soccer fans showed up to the World Cup game between the Netherlands and the Ivory Coast wearing pants in the colors of the Dutch national team. The pants had been given out as promotional gifts by a beer company. FIFA, the governing body of international soccer,… Read More »