This article provides the first comprehensive analysis of patent law’s “pioneer invention doctrine” in almost two decades. Since the early 1990s, patent scholars have unanimously reported that case law favoring so-called “pioneer” patents – i.e., those disclosing the most...

Skyrocketing mobile data demands caused by increasing adoption of smartphones, tablet computers, and broadband-equipped laptops will soon swamp the capacity of our nation’s wireless networks, a fact that promises to stagnate a $1 trillion slice on the nation’s economy. Among scholars and...

This article studies the "entire market value rule," a U.S. patent law doctrine that, when applied, allows the owner of a component invention to capture the entire value of a larger infringing product that unlawfully incorporates its invention. I argue that the entire market value rule...

This paper reports the findings of an empirical study of patent suits involving non-practicing entities (NPEs) in the U.K. between 2000 and 2010. Overall, we find that NPEs are responsible for 11% of all patent suits filed in the U.K. during this period. Though this is a small percentage by U.S....

Citing empirical evidence that non-practicing entities assert relatively old patents that cover inventions in relatively fast-paced industries, this essay argues that the PTO should increase the number and magnitude of patent renewal ("maintenance") fees in order to hasten the expiration of...

We study five years of data on patents listed and sold in the quasi-public “brokered” market. Our data covers almost 39,000 assets, an estimated 80 percent of all patents and applications offered for sale by patent brokers between 2012 and 2016. We provide statistics on the size and...

Patent systems commonly empower courts to order accused or adjudged infringers to refrain from continuing infringing conduct in the future. Some patentees file suit for the primary purpose of obtaining and enforcing an injunction against infringement by a competitor, and even in cases in which...

Studies of the costs and benefits of university patent ownership have, to date, focused on life sciences technology. Increasingly, however, many of the most lucrative university-owned patents relate to computing and telecommunications, not genes or pharmaceuticals. In 2007, a University of...

In her Article, The Rise of the End User in Patent Litigation, Professor Bernstein makes the case for legislative and judicial action designed to protect technology users from abusive patent enforcement that exploits their relative lack of resources and technical knowledge. This Essay presents...

The essay uses a simple thought experiment to argue that the $1.05 billion jury verdict awarded in the first "smartphone wars" trial between Apple and Samsung is unreasonably large. In short, if a $400 smartphone incorporates about 250,000 total patented inventions, the average patent accounts...