Academic

Lee on Samuelson on Interfact Patents & Interoperability

By Lawrence Solum

Peter Lee (University of California, Davis School of Law) has posted Innovating between and within Technological Paradigms: A Response to Samuelson (Minnesota Law Review Headnotes, Vol. 93, 2009) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Are Interface Patents Impeding Interoperability,? this Response identifies situations where interface patents warrant regulatory intervention. It first notes that interfaces define ?technological paradigms?: integrated systems of interoperability. It then argues that interface patents can provide incentives to invent valuable interfaces and encourage healthy competition between emerging technological paradigms. However, once an industry has coalesced around a single paradigm, the costs of strictly asserting interface patents likely outweigh their benefits. This Response argues that by considering industrial and informational developments over time, government and industry actors can calibrate policy interventions to maximize innovation both between and within technological paradigms.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on September 24, 2009 (boomark / email).