George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

IP as a Source of Personal and Economic Freedom

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.   Read more

Crowdfunding's Impact on Start-Up IP Strategy

By Sean M. O’Connor*

Crowdfunding has been heralded as a revolutionary and democratic way to connect ordinary individuals with innovative projects they would like to support. The version involving equity investments in start-ups will be regulated under the U.S. JOBS Act of 2012. Read more

Two More Reasons to Think Twice Before Changing Our Patent System

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 investigation by judges, FTC Commissioners, former USPTO directors, and Congress’ very own Government Accountability Office (GAO).  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

Adam Mossoff on Patented Innovation, Licensing & Litigation (Transcript)

Below is the text of the oral testimony provided by Professor Adam Mossoff to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance Subcommittee, in its November 7, 2013 hearing on “Demand Letters and Consumer Protection: Examining Deceptive Practices by Patent Assertion Entities.” Read more

GAO Report Confirms No “Patent Troll” Litigation Problem

As we previously reported, there are serious concerns with the studies asserting that a “patent litigation explosion” has been caused by patent licensing companies (so-called non-practicing entities (“NPEs”) or “patent trolls”). These seemingly alarming studies (see here and here) have drawn scholarly criticism for their use of proprietary, secret data collected from companies like RPX and Patent Freedom – companies whose business models are predicated on defending against patent licensing companies. Read more

A Brief History of Software Patents (and Why They’re Valid)

a green screen with binary and figuresToday, there is significant public debate over patents on the digital processes and machines that comprise computer software programs. These are often referred to as “software patents,” but this is an odd moniker. Aside from the similarly mislabeled debate over “DNA patents,” nowhere else in the patent system do we refer to patents on machines or processes in a specific technological field in this way; for instance, people do not talk about “automobile brake patents” or “sex toy patents” as their own category of patents deserving of approval or scorn.  Read more

Teleforum Panel on End-User Lawsuits in Patent Law on August 29 (free and open to the public)

End-User Lawsuits in Patent Litigation: A Bug or a Feature of Patent Law?
A Teleforum Panel
(Free and Open to the Public)

Thursday, August 29, 2013
Noon – 1pm (EST)

In the patent policy debates today, one issue that has proven a flash point of controversy is patent infringement lawsuits against consumers and retailers, such as coffee shops, JC Penney, and others.  Read more

Anti-Patent Bias in Applying Injunction Test Results in Another District Court’s Reversal – Aria Diagnostics v. Sequenom (Fed. Cir. Aug. 9, 2013)

[Cross Posted to Truth on the Market]

In its recent decision in Douglas Dynamics v. Buyers Products Co. (Fed. Cir., May 21, 2013), the Federal Circuit was forced to reverse a district court’s abuse of its discretion because the trial judge injected an anti-patent bias into the legal test for determining whether a patent-owner should receive a permanent injunction against an infringer. 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