Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2004 Abstract: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was widely reported that the United States faced a solid waste crisis. Existing landfills were reaching capacity or being shut down because of more stringent regulations while waste volumes were continuing to rise. At the time, several market-oriented policy analysts […]
An Economic Assessment of Market-Based Approaches to Regulating the Municipal Solid Waste Stream
A Method for Reforming the Patent System
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2007 Abstract: The principal recent studies of patent reform (NAS (2004), FTC (2003), Jaffe and Lerner (2004)) contend that a uniform system of patent protection must (or should) be available for anything under the sun made by man based upon one or more of the following premises: (1) the Patent […]
Intellectual Property and the Law of Land
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2008 Abstract: In his response to my previous Regulation article, Professor Richard Epstein misses the gist and key implications of my criticism of his position. My essay questioned his overreliance on claims of structural unity between real and intellectual property systems, a claim he makes in a 2006 Progress & […]
Unwinding Sony
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2009 Abstract: The dawning of the digital age has brought the Supreme Court’s Sony “staple article of commerce” doctrine to center stage in legal and policy discussions about the proper role and scope of copyright protection. To technology companies, it represents a vital safe harbor for product design; to the […]
Indirect Copyright Liability and Technological Innovation
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2009 Abstract: Over the past decade, numerous scholars and commentators have asserted that the indirect copyright liability standards applied in the Napster, Aimster, and Grokster decisions, among others, significantly chill technological innovation. This article examines this critical conjecture and offers both a broader framework for assessing the relationship between indirect […]
Economic Implications of State Sovereign Immunity from Infringement of Federal Intellectual Property Rights
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2001 Abstract: In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decisions constraining Congress’ ability to abrogate state sovereign immunity, Professor Peter S. Menell examines the propensity of states and state actors to infringe federal intellectual property rights, the viability of alternative means of protecting federal intellectual property rights, and potential implications […]
Patents, Entry and Growth in the Software Industry
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2006 Abstract: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, people in the software industry often said that the coming of patents would spell doom, particularly for small companies. The entry of new firms – the seedbed of growth in the industry – would dry up, and only large, bureaucratic and […]
Property Rights, Firm Boundaries, and R&D Inputs
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2001 Abstract: This Article offers an explanation of the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in information-intensive vertical supply relationships. In particular, we explore the connection between stronger property rights and the enhanced viability of independent (versus vertically integrated) input supply firms when contracts are incomplete. We start by modeling […]
A New Dynamism in the Public Domain
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2004 Abstract: Many believe intellectual property has overreached, and that policymakers must respond. In this essay, I argue that the critique may have merit, but private parties are in some cases taking matters into their own hands. Firms and individuals are increasingly injecting information into the public domain with the […]
A Transactional View of Property Right
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2005 Abstract: Property rights and contract law are two of our most basic legal categories. Many legal scholars describe what makes them different; this Essay describes how they work together to promote economic exchange. Incorporating the insights of both “transaction cost” and “new property rights” economics, it identifies two crucial […]