Patent law has tried to find a middle ground between a vision of invention as a mental act and a competing vision that focuses on the actual building of a working product. The definition of invention in the 1952 Patent Act incorporates both conception and reduction to practice, sometimes...

Along with experts from around the world, Mendis, Lemley and Rimmer consider the legal and intellectual property implications relating to 3D printing and emerging technologies in the UK, USA, and Australia. This edited book will consider the legal and intellectual property (IP) implications...

Courts, commentators, and companies have devoted enormous time and energy to the problem of standard-essential patents (SEPs) – patents that cover (or at least are claimed to cover) industry standards. With billions of dollars at stake, there has been a great deal of litigation and even more...

In theory, we have a unified patent system that provides technology-neutral protection to all kinds of technologies. However, we have recently noticed an increasing divergence between the rules actually applied to different industries. Biotechnology provides one of the best examples. In...

We test empirically whether purchased patents that are litigated fare better or worse than litigated patents that aren’t purchased. We identified every case filed in 2009 and 2010 that had a definitive winner and had information on the presence or absence of an assignment or other transfer....

This Comment evaluates the economic effects of the patent misuse doctrine. The patent misuse doctrine is an equitable remedy analogous to the “unclean hands” doctrine in tort law. It bars infringement suits by patentees who have “misused” their patent grant, either by using the patent to...

How can we allow patent examiners to effectively distinguish between patentable and unpatentable inventions, without slowing the process to a crawl or wasting a bunch of money? This essay reviews the recent literature and considers a number of proposals and their limitations. It concludes that...

Antibodies constitute a staggering $145 billion annual market—an amount projected to almost double by 2026. Consequently, patents covering antibodies are among the most valuable in the patent system. But antibody patents are being struck down left and right, victims of the Federal Circuit’s...

Competitive job markets are critical to the success of the national economy, spurring innovation while boosting wages and labor equality. The moment is ripe for the new administration to foster competitive job markets by banning noncompete agreements (noncompetes). New empirical evidence shows...