We investigate the conditions for the desirability of exclusive intellectual property rights for innovators, as opposed to weak rights allowing for some degree of imitation and ex-post competition. The comparison between the two alternatives reduces to a specific "ratio test," which suggests...

Different elements in the patent community speak of inventions and the criteria through which property rights may be granted or withheld from them in ways that are often incongruent. In large part this is due to disagreements about the functional, if not normative legitimacy, of many...

The “tragedy of the anti-commons” can lead to complex issues in fields of technology characterized by a strong focus on research and innovation, such as the pharmaceutical industry, with reference not only to the mere production of final products, which may be hindered by IPRs, but also to...

We survey the empirical literature on non-practicing entity (NPE) litigation behavior and its consequences. We document both aggregate trends and cross-sectional differences amongst various types of NPEs. Survey evidence illustrates a number of ways in which NPEs can potentially act...

It is well known that innovation law and policy must strike a balance between incentivizing inventions on the one hand, and granting monopolies to successful innovators on the other. In achieving this balance, it is commonly presumed that actors in innovation markets respond to their economic...

This Article argues that administrative law doctrines should not apply to judicial review of the patent system. The dynamics of patent law derive not from public law regulation, but rather from the private law doctrines of contract, property, and tort. A patent is akin to a unilateral contract...

The Constitution gives Congress the power to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts." The patent system embodies this power, but does it fulfill its essential purpose? This Note explores the scope of the exclusive rights of patents, arguing that in many circumstances the exclusive...

There are three cross-retaliation cases in WTO which gave the right to the complainant state to suspend the protection of intellectual property rights of the respondent state, namely EC-Bananas, US-Gambling, and US-Upland Cotton. Until now no complainant state has ever executing her rights to...

A recent and widely received study by Lauren Cohen, Umit G. Gurun, and Scott Duke Kominers finds that non-practicing entities (NPEs) — pejoratively known as “patent trolls” — are “opportunistic” because they target defendants that (1) are cash-rich (particularly compared to...