Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2010 Abstract: Emissions taxes and carbon caps can both lead to efficient production of energy, in the sense of controlling carbon emissions to the extent that is efficient with existing technologies. However, the regulatory policy has a second objective, which is to create incentives to develop lower-carbon technologies. With both objectives […]
Cap-and-Trade, Emissions Taxes, and Innovation
Google Book Search and the Future of Books in Cyberspace
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: The Google Book Search (GBS) initiative once promised to test the bounds of fair use, as the company started scanning millions of in-copyright books from the collections of major research libraries. The initial goal of this scanning was to make indexes of the books’ contents and to provide short […]
Verifiability and Group Formation in Markets
Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2010 Abstract: We consider group formation with asymmetric information. Agents have unverifiable characteristics as well as the verifiable qualifications required for memberships in groups. The characteristics can be chosen, such as strategies in games, or can be learned, such as skills required for jobs. They can also be innate, such as […]
First Amendment Defenses in Trade Secrecy Cases
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: Only rarely do defendants in trade secrecy cases raise First Amendment defenses to misappropriation claims. In a few cases, however, such defenses have not only been raised, but have been successful. These successes have been controversial. Some commentators and at least one court have opined that First Amendment defenses […]
Locke Remixed
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2007 Abstract: This brief Comment was prepared as part of a conference on Intellectual Property and Social Justice at U.C. Davis Law School in March, 2006. I argue here against a broad legal right to remix digital content – to freely alter or modify pre-existing copyrighted works. I first note […]
Statutory Damages in Copyright Law: A Remedy in Need of Reform
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: U.S. copyright law gives successful plaintiffs who promptly registered their works the ability to elect to receive an award of statutory damages, which can be granted in any amount between $750 and $150,000 per infringed work. This provision gives scant guidance about where in that range awards should be […]
Should Copyright Owners Have to Give Notice about Their Use of Technical Protection Measures?
Author(s): Year: 2007 Abstract: Consumers expect to be able to do at least as much with digital content as they have been able to do with analog content, and more. Yet, some copyright owners are using technical protection measures to thwart certain consumer uses of digital content, and rarely do they give effective notice to […]
Addressing Global Health Inequities: An Open Licensing Approach for University Innovations
Author(s): Amy Kapczynski Year: 2009 Abstract: The article describes the current crisis in access to medicines in the developing world, the existing R&D gap, and the role of universities and other public sector research institutions in exacerbating or ameliorating these problems. It proposes that public sector institutions adopt “Equitable Access Licensing” in order to ensure […]
High Technology Entrepreneurs and the Patent System: Results of the 2008 Berkeley Patent Survey
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2009 Abstract: We offer description and analysis of the 2008 Berkeley Patent Survey, summarizing the responses of 1,332 U.S.-based technology startups in the biotechnology, medical device, IT hardware, software, and Internet sectors. We discover that holding patents is more widespread among technology startups than has been previously reported, but that […]
Author Autonomy and Atomism in Copyright Law
Author(s): Molly S. Van Houweling Year: 2009 Abstract: Digital technology enables individuals to create and communicate in ways that were previously possible only for well-funded corporate publishers. These individual creators are increasingly harnessing copyright law to insist on ownership of the rights to control their musical works, scholarly research, and even Facebook musings. When individual […]