Issues

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.

Privacy as Commons: Case Evaluation Through the Governing Knowledge Commons Framework

“Privacy” is best defined as a matter of the appropriate flow of information. A concept known as the “general knowledge commons” helps analyze privacy problems, although the concept was developed for creative content rather than privacy analysis.

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.

Trademark Strength and Fame: The Federal Circuit Corrects the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

In 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided the Joseph Phelps Vineyards case, reversing the Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) decision in a case asking whether consumers would likely be confused by a new trademark.

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.

Law, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) will be widely used for social and commercial purposes. AR and VR will sometimes be used to harm others, testing the limits of criminal, civil, and constitutional law.

Platforms and Interoperability in Oracle v. Google

Software made by one firm often needs to work with software made by other firms. In Oracle v. Google, a federal court will consider whether copyright law will change to hinder software interoperability.