Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2002 Abstract: Voting Technology and Democracy, 77 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 625 (2002), examines a phenomenon that I term the “voting-technology divide.” The “divide” was caused by the deployment of election technology in November 2000 with better and worse levels of feedback to voters. Through an analysis of data from the […]
Voting Technology and Democracy
Beyond the War on Terrorism: Towards the New Intelligence Network
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2007 Abstract: In Terrorism, Freedom, and Security, Philip B. Heymann undertakes a wide-ranging study of how the United States can – and in his view should – respond to the threat of international terrorism. Heymann makes clear his own policy and legal preferences. First, he firmly rejects the widely used […]
On the Optimality of the Patent Renewal System
Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 1999 Abstract: The patent system is mainly a renewal system: the patent life is chosen by the patentee in return for fees. I ask whether such a system can be justified by asymmetric information on costs and benefits of research. In such a model I show that renewal mechanisms (possibly with […]
Patent Breadth, Patent Life, and the Pace of Technological Progress
Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 1999 Abstract: In active investment climates where firms sequentially improve each other’s products, a patent can terminate either because it expires or because a noninfringing innovation displaces its product in the market. We define the length of time until one of these happens as the effective patent life, and show how […]
The Uninvited Guest: Patents on Wall Street
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2003 Abstract: The 1998 State Street Bank case opened the door to patents for “business methods.” One important category of business method patents covers financial products: securities, derivatives, futures contracts, and the like. This paper describes how State Street Bank emerged, unbidden by the financial services industries, as a byproduct […]
An Estoppel Doctrine for Patented Standards
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2008 Abstract: Technical standards, such as interface protocols or file formats, are extremely important in the network industries that add so much value to the world economy today. Under some circumstances, the assertion of patent rights against established industry standards can seriously disrupt these network industries. We have in mind […]
Incentives to Challenge and Defend Patents: Why Litigation Won’t Reliably Fix Patent Office Errors and Why Administrative Patent Review Might Help
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2004 Abstract: Given the limits on Patent Office scrutiny of patent applications, one might hope that ex post litigation can fix at least the important errors. Unfortunately, the often grossly skewed incentives to challenge and to defend issued patents make this view too optimistic. Since litigation cannot fix all errors, […]
Software and Patent Scope: A Report from the Middle Innings
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2007 Abstract: In the 1980s and early 1990s, it was commonly said that patents would severely damage the software industry. I review some of these early predictions, and hold them up to the light of actual experience. However judged – by overall industry revenues, by product innovation, or by vibrancy […]
The End of Friction? Property Rights and Contract in the ‘Newtonian’ World of On-Line Commerce
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 1997 Abstract: The conventional account lists four types of transaction costs: – Identifying potential buyers and sellers; – Negotiating deals; – Measuring performance, e.g., metering use; and – Enforcing agreements. Despite recent hype, cyberspace is not truly Newtonian because it does not eliminate all of these sources of friction. Enforcement […]
To Waive and Waive Not: Property and Flexibility in the Digital Era
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2011 Abstract: Even in an era when creative works can sometimes be made collectively, and where copying and modifying existing works is often easy, individual ownership of discrete creative works still makes sense. Individual creative effort is still the crucial ingredient for many high quality works, and the control conferred […]