Patent law defines novelty by the creation of a new embodiment, not an idea. For example, the Wright brothers are deemed to have invented the airplane because nobody made an airplane before, and not because they were the first to think of flying. Patent law then defines monopoly scope through a...

Much recent literature has characterized the Federal Circuit’s patent scope jurisprudence as “formalistic.” Another extensive set of literature has characterized the Federal Circuit’s patent scope jurisprudence as wildly indeterministic. If formalism is defined as decision-making...

The concept of “invention” is fundamental to patent law. What the patentee creates as the invention, he receives as his monopoly reward. This quid pro quo suggests that patent scope is self-defining: the patentee receives whatever invention he created, and nothing else. The quid pro quo...

The claims of a patent are its boundaries, defining the scope of exclusion. This boundary function of claims is undermined by the fact that claims can be changed throughout the life of the patent, thereby moving the patent boundary. A boundary that can be moved at-will is one that the public...

In the altruism model of voting, the social benefits of an electoral outcome is considered to offset the low probability of casting a decisive vote, thereby overcoming the voting paradox. One problem with this model is that it assumes both a clearly superior electoral outcome for society and...

There is an enormous literature analyzing the choice between rules and standards in drafting legal directives. This literature typically focuses on public government-made legal directives such as statutes, regulations, and judicial opinions; it has devoted less attention to privately-drafted...

Courts assessing compensatory damages awards often lack adequate information to determine the value of a victim's loss. A central reason for this problem, which the literature has thus far overlooked, is that courts face a dilemma when applying their standard information-forcing tool to the...