This paper discusses notable intellectual property law cases in the United States in 2011. Patent cases addressed such issues as the scope of patent subject matter (the patentability of human genes and methods for testing for genetic links to cancer), the standards for challenges to the validity...

This piece reviews Economic and Legal Dimensions, which presents a pragmatic economic theory about the proper remedies in intellectual property cases. The book shows in a number of areas how remedies play a crucial role in defining intellectual property rights, and how to improve the law. The...

This article analyzes the ramifications of Eldred v. Ashcroft, for both constitutional law and intellectual property law. The Supreme Court upheld the twenty year extension of existing and future copyrights. A broad coalition had challenged the constitutionality of the term extension, on both...

This article discusses how the functional aspects of software should be accounted for in applying copyright's fair use doctrine. Copyright provides an incentive for authors to produce creative works, by giving them an exclusive right to make and distribute copies of their work. The fair use...

This paper uses the work of C.S. Peirce to explore legal reasoning by analogy. Peirce divided reasoning into three basic forms: deduction, induction, and abduction. Deductive reasoning discloses conclusions that necessarily follow from the premises. Inductive reasoning gives support to...

This essay considers how patent law doctrine clouds the historical record of technological development. The essay first surveys a recent book that relied heavily on patent records to reexamine acutely the role of intellectual property in economic development, "The Democratization of Invention,"...

This Article discusses another role for default rules--reducing costs of status competition. Default rules principally serve to reduce transaction costs and strategic behavior costs, but they also accomplish other functions. The hypothetical behavior of parties that measure the costs and...

This paper discusses notable intellectual property law cases in the United States in 2012. The Supreme Court cut back on the scope of patent subject matter in Prometheus, while according Congress great latitude in extending copyright protection in Golan. Prometheus was one of a number of cases...

The Supreme Court decided more patent cases in 2014 than any previous year. It lowered the standard for awarding fees in patent cases, clarified that the patent holder carries the burden of showing infringement even in declaratory judgment actions, lowered the standard for invalidating patent...

This paper looks at some issues that may arise as Bitcoin, and its underlying blockchain technology, plays a greater role in commercial transactions. Bitcoin and other public blockchains permit identification of every transaction that has occurred. But tracing bitcoin – an issue arising in...