This law review examines in detail an emerging gap for evaluating anticompetitive concerns of utility consolidations between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under the Federal Power Act and the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Public Utilities Holding Company Act. First, this...

The purpose of patent policy is to balance the incentive to invent against the ability of the economy to utilize and incorporate new inventions and innovations. Substandard patents that upset this balance impose deadweight losses and other costs on the economy. In this Policy Paper, we examine...

The Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") recently announced a new "market power" test to analyze whether forbearance is appropriate under Section 10 of the Communications Act. As we explain, the standard for forbearance set forth by the FCC effectively renders, perhaps inadvertently,...

This Bulletin presents a brief primer of the FCC's merger review authority under the Communications Act. As outlined herein, precedent dictates that the FCC has independent (and indeed broader) authority to review communications industry mergers separate from the authority bestowed upon the...

In the last few years, U.S. telecoms policy has shifted from encouraging the sharing of existing networks to facilitating the deployment of advanced communications networks. Given the large capital expenditures required for these networks, there can be only a few of such networks. In light of...

One of the most heated debates in the current efforts to re-write the Communications Act has been whether the federal government should impose "Network Neutrality" requirements on broadband service providers. While we argue neither for nor against the need for Network Neutrality legislation in...

Over the past few months there have been calls to impose "wireless net neutrality" rules on the burgeoning United States wireless industry. These critics assert that certain practices by the wireless industry - such as handset "locking" practices, data bandwidth limitations, and control over...

Countries around the world are increasingly concerned as to whether the adoption of broadband technology by their respective citizens is sufficient to support economic growth and social development. Unfortunately, such concerns are often expressed in terms of where a country ranks among its...

With the D.C. Circuit’s recent ruling in Comcast v. FCC, the court has thrown the Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to promote an “Open Internet” into legal limbo. In response, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has announced that he intends to seek to impose a “Third Way”,...