George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

CPIP’s Sean O’Connor Files Comments with FTC on Consumer and Competition Concerns with Copyright Licensing

Sean O'ConnorOn December 21, 2018, CPIP Director of International Innovation Policy Sean O’Connor filed comments before the FTC as part of its hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century. In October of 2018, Prof. O’Connor participated in the hearings on the Competition Policy and Copyright Law panel, and he submitted these comments to further expand upon the issues he discussed there. Read more

Department of Justice Recognizes Importance of Reliable Patent Rights in Innovation Economy

dictionary entry for the word "innovate"It is undeniable that the patent system has been under stress for the past decade, as courts, regulators, and even the Patent Office itself (as the newly confirmed Director Andrei Iancu has acknowledged) have sowed legal uncertainty, weakened patent rights, and even outright eliminated patent rights. Read more

Letter to Antitrust Chief Applauds DOJ’s New Evidence-Based Approach to IP Enforcement

hand under a lightbulb drawn on a chalkboardA group of judges, former judges and government officials, law professors and economists with expertise in antitrust law and patent law sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim earlier today applauding his recent announcements that the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) would now take a balanced, evidence-based approach in applying antitrust law to patent licensing, especially to patented innovations that have been contributed to technological standards. Read more

SONA and Songwriters Fight DOJ’s Misguided 100% Licensing Rule

Things are heating up in the lawsuit filed by Songwriters of North America and three of its members (SONA) challenging the new gloss of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the 75-year-old consent decrees that govern the licensing practices of ASCAP and BMI, the two largest performance rights organizations (PROs). Read more

The Nadir of “Patent Troll” Rhetoric

The venerable high-tech company IBM is no more a “patent troll” than any other legitimate company that engages in patent licensing. Yet, according to the very arguments of those who are using this ill-defined and misleading term, the shoe fits. Read more

The Myth of the “Patent Troll” Litigation Explosion

[Cross posted at Truth on the Market]

In a prior blog posting, I reported how reports of a so-called “patent litigation explosion” today are just wrong.  As I detailed in another blog posting, the percentage of patent lawsuits today are not only consistent with historical patent litigation rates in the nineteenth century, there is actually less litigation today than during some decades in the early nineteenth century. Read more