Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2009 Abstract: The history of the tax privacy contains a number of surprises. First, the concept of tax privacy has been contested throughout much of the 19th and 20th Century. For a long period, tax returns were considered to be public documents. At times, they were even posted on court […]
The Future of Tax Privacy
Evaluating Telecommunications Surveillance in Germany: The Lessons of the Max Planck Institute’s Study
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2005 Abstract: The publication in 2003 of a long-awaited empirical study of telecommunications surveillance in Germany has opened a window into existing law and practices in that country. Under the sponsorship of the Federal Department of Justice, three researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law […]
Privacy and the Economics of Health Care Information
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 1998 Abstract: Genetic science permits, to a previously unimaginable degree, predictions as to the illnesses that a person might confront in the future. At the same time, information technology permits greater transmission, sharing, and storage of personal health care data at ever lower costs on a national and even international […]
Data Protection Law and the Ethical Use of Analytics, Privacy and Security Law Report
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2011 Abstract: Organizations now work in a data-rich environment. As the Article 29 Working Group of the EU recently noted, ‘‘[W]e are witnessing a so-called ‘data deluge’ effect, where the amount of personal data that exists, is processed and is further transferred continues to grow.’’From all indications, the data […]
Patent Case Management Judicial Guide
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2009 Abstract: As the number, size, and complexity of patent cases have grown throughout the United States over the past several decades – paralleling expansion in the role of high technology enterprises in the U.S. economy – the need for a comprehensive, user-friendly, and practical judicial guide for managing patent […]
Patent Claim Construction: A Modern Synthesis and Structured Framework
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2011 Abstract: The construction of patent claims plays a critical role in nearly every patent case. It is central to evaluation of infringement and validity, and can affect or determine the outcome of other significant issues such as unenforceability, enablement, and remedies. Yet jurists and scholars have long lamented the […]
From Medieval Guilds to Open Source Software: Informal Norms, Appropriability Institutions, and Innovation
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2005 Abstract: This essay draws on recent scholarship concerning the nature and function of medieval guilds. I argue that certain features of these guilds appear in modern institutions that further collective invention (“appropriability institutions”): patent pools, industry-wide standard-setting organizations, informal knowledge exchange among academic scientists, and (in a more limited […]
Are Patents on Interfaces Impeding Interoperability?
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2009 Abstract: Many commentators and policymakers have recognized that patents on interfaces can be and sometimes have been exercised to block the development of interoperable technologies. Out of concern about the exclusionary power of such patents, they have proposed a wide array of legal and policy measures to ensure that interoperability […]
Autonomy and Independence: The Normative Face of Transaction Costs
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2011 Abstract: Not everyone believes in the desirability of Intellectual Property (IP) rights for individual creators, but almost everyone believes that even when these rights make sense the cost of moving them around is a major headache. One aspect of anti-commons theory is the observation that the cost of assembling […]
Privacy in the Smart Grid: An Information Flow Analysis
Author(s): Deirdre K. Mulligan Year: 2011 Abstract: Smart meters, smart devices, and gateways allowing automated control of in-home devices are linchpins in an ambitious vision of creating a Smart Grid that will increase efficiency, improve grid resilience and reliability, and reduce peak demand. The collection, retention, and use of detailed usage data, however, put individual […]