We analyze the effect of patent thickets on entry into technology areas by firms in the UK. We present a model that describes incentives to enter technology areas characterized by varying technological opportunity, complexity of technology, and the potential for hold‐up in patent thickets. We...

Governments have strong incentives to allow their inventors to free ride on foreign technologies. They can achieve this result by discriminating against foreigners in the patent system by refusing to grant foreigners a patent for their inventions. International patent law treaties forbid this...

Since 1950, Congress has limited the scope of the activities in which a nonprofit entity could participate, in part due to a controversy over a pasta company donated to the NYU School of Law by a couple of wealthy alumni. The pasta profits helped the school refurbish and expand, but competing...

Concerns have been raised that the upsurge of 3D printing technology would disrupt the patent system. The central question the present paper aims to address is whether and to what extent the emergence of 3D printing technology indeed urges us to rethink patent law. The paper splits up this...

The American corporate graveyard is littered with prior darlings of Wall Street and pillars of the New York Stock Exchange, such as Kodak and Polaroid (both photography pioneers). More recently, other businesses and entire industries that were once household names have similarly experienced...

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technologies are often seen as a threat by copyright owners because they encourage piracy by making digital copies easier. In response, major record companies have come up with new devices designed to protect original material, and lobbied to reinforce legal protection. We...

The amount of greenhouse gas emissions and consequent climate changes and social responses will depend substantially upon the rapid development and widespread dissemination of a wide variety of new mitigation and adaptation technologies. The international approach adopted by the UN Framework...

This paper aims to approach the policy discourse on appropriate policies for digital intellectual property from the vantage point of distributional justice. It argues that it is impossible to evaluate the adequacy of specific intellectual property arrangements from a distributive justice point...

Patents in the life sciences sector have sparked considerable debate over the past years. The grant of a series of patents for the screening of breast cancer (BRCA) genes led to wide controversy in Europe, the US and Australia. The grant of patents for plants resulting from essentially...

Designing around patents is prevalent but not often appreciated as a means by which patents promote economic development through competition. We provide a novel detailed empirical study of the extent and timing of designing around patent claims. We study the filing rate of incandescent...