Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2008 Abstract: Some commentators see the need for major changes in the legal and institutional framework surrounding the music industry. Some proposals call for revising or eliminating performing rights organizations (PROs), which have for many years now represented the interests of songwriters in their dealings with broadcasters and other companies […]
The Continuing Vitality of Music Performance Rights Organizations
Now and Then, Here and There: A Review Essay on Khan, the Democratization of Invention, and Blind, et al., Software Patents
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2007 Abstract: This Review Essay will appear in the Journal of Economic Literature. It covers two books: The Democratization of Innovation by Zorina Khan, and Knut Blind, et al., Software Patents. The Khan book argues that a wise intellectual property policy – in particular, a highly “democratic” legal order that […]
Property Rights Theory and the Employed Inventor
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 1997 Abstract: This paper explains and defends the legal rules governing employed inventors in the United States. In particular, it justifies the oft-criticized propensity of courts to defer to apparently one-sided “pre-invention assignment” agreements that give corporate employers broad rights in the inventions their employees make during (and in some […]
The Strange Odyssey of Software Interfaces and Intellectual Property Law
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2009 Abstract: This book chapter traces the strange odyssey of interfaces through various forms of intellectual property protection. Interface specifications were initially either public domain documents or protected as trade secrets, depending on whether or not they were published. For a time, it seemed as though sui generis protection would be […]
What Effects Do Legal Rules Have on Service Innovation?
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2009 Abstract: Intellectual property, contract, and tort laws likely have effects on levels of innovation in service sectors of the economy. Legal rules that are too strong or too strict may discourage investment in service innovation; yet, rules that are too weak or too loose may result in suboptimal investments in […]
Five Challenges for Regulating the Global Information Society
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2000 Abstract: The Internet is unquestionably having a profound effect on many aspects of the social, cultural, economic, and legal systems of planet Earth. Indeed, advances in the Internet and in other global communications technologies make it possible to contemplate the development of a global information society. Such a society may […]
Global Justice in Healthcare: Developing Drugs for the Developing World
Author(s): Talha Syed Year: 2006 Abstract: Each year, roughly nine million people in the developing world die from infectious diseases. The large proportion of those deaths could be prevented, either by making existing drugs available at low prices in developing countries, or by augmenting the resources devoted to the creation of new vaccines and treatments […]
The Copyright Principles Project: Directions for Reform
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2011 Abstract: Copyright law is under considerable stress these days, particularly due to technological advances and the growth of global networks. In recognition of these stresses, the Copyright Principles Project (CPP) was formed to consider whether and what possible improvements could be made to existing U.S. copyright law. Participants brought to […]
Ideas and Innovations: Which Should Be Subsidized?
Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2011 Abstract: The Bayh-Dole Act allows universities to commercialize their research. University laboratories therefore have two sources of funds: direct grants from the government and funds from commercialization. In addition to giving direct subsidies to university laboratories, the government also subsidizes the commercial sector, for example, through tax credits. Subsidies to […]
Access to Knowledge: A Conceptual Genealogy
Author(s): Amy Kapczynski Year: 2011 Abstract: This is an introduction to an edited volume, Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property (Zone Press, 2010. It’s aim is to describe and analyze the conceptual stakes of the new mobilization around A2K. A2K groups contest the terrain of intellectual property law (for example, around issues […]