Academic

Burk & Lemley on Industry Variation & Patent Law

By Lawrence Solum

Dan L. Burk and Mark A. Lemley (University of California, Irvine Law School and Stanford Law School) have posted Courts and the Patent System (Regulation, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 18-23, Summer 2009) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Innovation and patent law work differently in different industries. To some degree, the courts? interpretations of patent and trademark law accommodate those differences. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that the patent system must bend or break: a patent system that is not flexible enough to account for these industry differences is unlikely to survive, let along accomplish its stated goals. We believe the system has the flexibility to do both, but this will require the courts to better recognize and use the policy levers they have been given.

Recommended.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on August 06, 2009 (boomark / email).