Intellectual Property

Licensing Standard Essential Patents with FRAND Commitments: Preparing for 5G Mobile Telecommunications

As 5G mobile telecommunication technologies develop, some have proposed that courts or administrative agencies should regulate licensing of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs).

Finding Reasonable Royalty Damages: A Contract Approach to Patent Infringement 

Courts differ as to how to calculate damages for patent infringement. The best approach would be for courts to construct an “informed contract” between the parties to the dispute.

Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome

Intellectual property (IP) is intended to encourage innovation. For two years, Celera held exclusive IP rights to data about some human genes. During this time, other firms reduced research and development (R&D) related to these genes from 20-30%. These effects persisted for years after.

Growth Through Heterogeneous Innovations

A firm’s size affects its choice of innovation strategy. A new economic model of innovation helps explain the tendency of new entrants and incumbent producers to innovate differently, and their differing effects of economic growth.

Standard Setting Organizations and Standard Essential Patents: Voting and Markets

Some observers are concerned that standard setting unfairly benefits the owners of standard essential patents (SEPs). However, standard setting organizations (SSOs) usually choose rules that benefit all.

Intellectual Contract and Intellectual Law

Technological change is increasing the importance of intangible assets. A new legal concept, the “Intellectual Contract” (IC), would better support innovation, as current Intellectual property (IP) rules are limited.

Global Collaborative Patents

Some firms based in the United States file collaborative patents on inventions made by teams with members inside and outside the United States. This collaborative innovation is growing in importance. Collaborative patents tend to be of high quality.

Why Incentives For "Patent Holdout" Threaten to Dismantle FRAND, And Why It Matters

Some favor manufacturers over innovators in disputes over licensing terms for standard-essential patents (SEPs). But manufacturers and innovators should receive reciprocal benefits from their commitment to licensing the SEPs. Manufacturers have a duty to negotiate in good faith.

How Essential are Standard-Essential Patents?

Standard-essential patents (SEPs) cover technologies needed to make complex products like wi-fi. Patent trolls that assert SEPs in court win few cases, often because the patent was not actually infringed.

Functionality and Expression in Computer Programs: Refining the Tests for Software Copyright Infringement

Copyright law protects the expressive elements of created works, but not the work’s function. But expressive elements of software programs are hard to distinguish from functional elements. Elements needed to interoperate with other programs should not be protected by copyright.