Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 1997 Abstract: As intellectual property rights have gained in prominence, businesspeople and scholars alike have complained of the increasing burden of obtaining intellectual property licenses and, failing this, litigating intellectual property disputes. Intellectual property experts, especially scholars, have responded to this burgeoning thicket of rights with a series of initiatives […]
Contracting into Liability Rules: Intellectual Property Rights and Collective Rights Organizations
Enriching Discourse on Public Domains
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2006 Abstract: Is there one public domain, or are there many public domains? The scholarly literature predominantly assumes there is only one, for references abound to “the public domain” in the singular. Yet, even a cursory review of this literature reveals that scholars sometimes define this term differently. So if there […]
Principles for Resolving Conflicts Between Trade Secrets and the First Amendment
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2006 Abstract: Preliminary and permanent injunctions are routinely granted in trade secret cases without offending the First Amendment, and this is as it should be. In ordinary trade secret cases, injunctions merely require parties to abide by express or implicit agreements they have made, respect the confidences under which they acquired […]
A Prize System as a Partial Solution to the Health Crisis in the Developing World
Author(s): Talha Syed Year: 2009 Abstract: Each year, roughly nine million people in the developing world die from infectious diseases. Millions more endure suffering caused by the same diseases. Many of those deaths and much of that pain could be avoided by modifying the combination of laws and government programs that provide incentives for the […]
Tailoring Legal Protection for Computer Software
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2011 Abstract: This article applies economic analysis to the design of legal protection for computer software. Keywords: computer software, network economics, copyright Link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1944548
The Challenges of Reforming Intellectual Property Protection for Computer Software
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2011 Abstract: This article examines three critical, interrelated challenges for reforming legal protection for computer software: (1) analyzing the market failures that might justify government intervention to define (or alter) the legal entitlements granted for software innovations; (2) predicting the likely path of computer technology; and (3) anticipating and navigating […]
An Epitaph for Traditional Copyright Protection of Network Features of Computer Software
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2011 Abstract: This article describes the evolution of copyright protection for computer software. It shows how the courts successfully deployed and adapted copyright doctrines in a manner that protected software against piracy while at the same time allowing for competition and innovation. Keywords: computer software, copyright, network effects, innovation, competition, […]
Copyright Exhaustion and the Personal Use Dilemma
Author(s): Jason Schultz Year: 2011 Abstract: Copyright law struggles to provide a coherent framework for analyzing personal uses. Although there is widespread agreement that at least some such uses are non-infringing, the doctrinal basis for that conclusion remains unclear. In particular, the prevailing explanations of fair use and implied license are both flawed in important […]
Can Online Piracy Be Stopped by Laws?
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2012 Abstract: This article will explain the key features of SOPA, why the entertainment industry believed SOPA was necessary to combat online piracy, and why SOPA came to be perceived as so flawed that numerous sponsors withdrew their support from the bill. Keywords: Stop Online Piracy Act, SOPA Link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2171474
The Uneasy Case for Software Copyrights Revisited
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2011 Abstract: Forty years ago, Justice Stephen Breyer expressed serious doubts about the economic soundness of extending copyright protection to computer programs in his seminal article, “The Uneasy Case for Copyright.” This article revisits “The Uneasy Case” to consider whether Breyer’s skepticism about copyright for computer programs was warranted at the […]