Over the past two decades, a small but growing number of law-and-economics scholars have begun to apply the standard tools of economic analysis to a field that long had evaded scrutiny by the law-and-economics community, namely the field of comparative law. To date, however, comparative law and...

In recent years, patent law’s inequitable conduct doctrine has attracted considerable attention from judges, legislators, patent lawyers, and commentators, culminating most recently in the Federal Circuit’s decision to revise certain aspects of the doctrine in its en banc decision in...

In recent years, juries in some patent infringement suits have awarded prevailing patentees "reasonable royalty" damages in the eight-, nine-, and even ten-figure range. Though not all of these awards have been upheld following postjudgment motions or on appeal, concern over the magnitude and...

Courts and commentators have recently begun to confront the issue of whether a product configuration that has been disclosed in a utility patent can serve as protectable trade dress under section 43(a) of the Lanham Act. In the view of some, such configurations necessarily enter the public...

Courts and commentators have recently begun to confront the issue of whether a product configuration that has been disclosed in a utility patent can serve as protectable trade dress under section 43(a) of the Lanham Act. In the view of some, such configurations necessarily enter the public...

Suppose that the manufacturer of a component that infringes another's patent sells that component to the manufacturer of a final product; the manufacturer of the final product incorporates the infringing component into the final product and then sells the final product to a wholesaler; the...

Commentators on antitrust and patent law over the past decade have advanced the view that "patent holdup" poses a serious threat to innovation and consumer welfare. In recent months, however, a more skeptical literature has emerged to challenge patent holdup on both theoretical and empirical...