The role of individual inventors, small firms and entrepreneurs in the patent courts has become controversial for two, somewhat contradictory reasons. First, there is the view that small parties may be at a serious disadvantage in the courts since they do not have the financial resources to...

In this article, we attempt to answer some fundamental questions regarding the role played by the courts in the patent system by examining a set of patent cases in great detail. To this end, we have constructed a new database based on court docket reports for all patent cases filed in 1995 and...

The creation of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) is generally regarded as an improvement in the system of patent adjudication in the United States. There is, however, considerable support for the creation of a specialized patent trial court based on the argument that we...

This report is in response to a request from the Federal Judicial Center to perform a study of the use of special masters in patent litigation. The analysis is based on 116 patent cases terminated in 2005 and 2006 that were identified by the Federal Judicial Center as having involved special...

This paper presents a classroom game that can be used to demonstrate network externalities, standardization, and switching costs. In the basic game, students independently choose a technology whose value depends on the total number of students choosing that technology. In the next round,...