Last week, CPIP released an important new policy brief, The Critical Role of Patents in the Development, Commercialization, and Utilization of Innovative Genetic Diagnostic Tests, by Professor Chris Holman. Professor Holman explains the important role that patents play not only in attracting the capital investment needed to bring genetic tests to market, but also in incentivizing companies […]
Today in American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. the Court held that Aereo’s television service, which re-transmits over-the-air TV signals to subscribers does indeed transmit performances to the public within the meaning of the Copyright Act. Aereo tried to engineer its system around the law by using individual micro-antennas assigned to each subscriber. An […]
By far the most important takeaway from today’s Supreme Court decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank is the Court’s acknowledgment that “many computer-implemented claims are formally addressed to patent-eligible subject matter.” Despite failing to alleviate the profound confusion caused by its recent §101 analysis in cases like Bilski, Myriad, Mayo, and plenty of earlier […]
By Adam Mossoff* and Brian O’Shaughnessy† Originally published in LES (USA & Canada)’s weekly e-newsletter, Insights. On April 29, 2014, the Supreme Court handed down two unanimous decisions in Octane Fitness v. ICON Health & Fitness and Highmark v. Allcare Health Management System, which radically overhaul the rules governing court-awarded attorneys’ fees in patent cases. In brief, the […]
By Steven Tjoe Much of today’s patent policy debate focuses on the dynamics of patent litigation. Sensational anecdotes of abusive demand letters, litigants strategically exploiting bad patents, and tales of so-called “patent trolls” (reinforced by now debunked empirical claims) have captured the public’s imagination and spurred Congress to rush to revise the patent system. Unfortunately, […]
By Steven Tjoe In his forthcoming George Mason University Law Review article entitled “The Meaning of ‘Fair and Reasonable’ in the Context of Third-Party Determination of FRAND Terms,” Professor Damien Geradin explores the delicate balance of interests protected by the current system of arm’s length negotiations in the standard-setting process, and the detrimental effect disrupting […]
By Steven Tjoe On Thursday March 13, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) notice and takedown system. Among the witnesses testifying at the hearing was CPIP Fellow Professor Sean O’Connor (Washington University School of Law), who offered his insights on Section 512 from his unique position as […]
In conjunction with today’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on the DMCA, CPIP Senior Scholar Prof. Mark Schultz published a critique of the notice and takedown system this morning on AEI’s TechPolicyDaily Blog. In his critique, Prof. Schultz discusses CPIP’s policy brief by Prof. Bruce Boyden, which details the failures of the DMCA – despite the massive number of takedown notices sent, not a […]
CPIP’s Mark Schultz authored an excellent essay today in TechPolicyDaily.com advocating intellectual property as a source of personal and economic freedom. The essay, “A Free Market Perspective on Intellectual Property Rights,” describes parallels between physical property and intellectual property and dispels several denigrating myths about intellectual property’s role in a free market. It’s a quick read, […]
By Steven Tjoe Today, misguided fears of an explosion of patent litigation and the specter of the so-called “patent troll” problem continue to influence the popular perception of patent policy. Over the past year, various organizations have spurred a movement to make significant legislative changes to our patent system, despite calls for caution and further […]