A few weeks have passed since the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its decision in Case C-170/12 Pinckney (here) and, since then, (some of) the thoughts of this blogger have been devoted to this ruling. As readers will promptly recollect, this case concerned interpretation of Article 5(3) of the Brussels I Regulation in the context of alleged online […]
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Patent races: pros and cons
By 29 October 2013 58
We have already developed on this blog the relationship between competition and innovation (see here and here). This relationship goes both ways. On the one hand, competition affects innovation insofar as the firms’ incentives to innovate depend (in a complex way) on the market structure (i.e., the number of firms on the market, the way they compete, the type […]
Are Patent Settlements Anti-Competitive?
By 11 October 2013 0
Settlements of disputes allowing parties to find a mutually acceptable compromise are a legitimate way to end private disagreements. The parties save costly litigation and the public authorities, such as courts and administrative bodies, equally save time and effort. The law and the public authorities should thus support the conclusion of those agreements. Now, some patent settlements […]
Secrecy vs. patents. How to choose?
By 10 October 2013 15
Because they blossom in winter and display striking red and green colors, poinsettias are ideal for Christmas decorating. Yet, their market domination did not happen by chance. It resulted from more than a century of clever decision-making by the Ecke family in California. The story of the Ecke poinsettias provides a nice illustration of two major choices […]
Where to sue in a case of alleged online copyright infringement?
By 10 October 2013 0
Readers who follow all things copyright will remember Case C-170/12 Pinckney, an exciting reference from the French Court of Cassation concerning jurisdiction in online infringement cases and interpretation of Article 5(3) of the Brussels I Regulation. The case was recalled a few days ago in the context of new reference C-441/13 Pez Ejduk (here). The fate of the Pinckney case was […]
Mixing patents and trade secrets for complex innovations
By 9 October 2013 23
In our latest working paper, Francis Bloch and myself analyze the optimal protection strategy for an innovator of a complex innovation who faces the risk of imitation by a competitor. Complex innovations A “complex innovation” is an innovation that can be fragmented into a set of sub-innovations. Although the possibility exists to patent each sub-innovation, innovators […]
Fixing the software patent problem
By 3 October 2013 18
In an article published the New York Times on October 7, 2012, Charles Duhigg and Steve Lohr give a critical view of the current state of the US patent system: Patents are vitally important to protecting intellectual property. Plenty of creativity occurs within the technology industry, and without patents, executives say they could never justify spending fortunes on […]
The economics of copyright protection
By 2 October 2013 32
A few weeks ago (September 14, 2013), the blog American Thinker published quite a vocal piece, entitled “Copyright Strangulation”, condemning the current scope and length of the US copyright law. According to the author, Mike Konrad, Copyright law in America gives individuals, and corporations, a paralyzing stranglehold on our culture. Though its proponents claim that it […]
CJEU asked to clarify copyright questions regarding online infringement, transformation and … exhaustion
By 29 September 2013 0
With autumn officially started, it is time to get back to school, buy a “bouquet of newly sharpened pencils” (you got it: it is a quote from one of this blogger’s favourite 1990s rom coms) or, if you happen to be a copyright case, probably head to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). […]
How entrepreneurial should the state be?
By 24 September 2013 24
In a chapter that I wrote in 2008 for the book “Intellectual Property and the Theories of Justice” (edited by A. Gosseries, A. Marciano and A. Strowel), I summarize how economists generally explain that the state has a role in promoting innovation. The problem with activities generating information or knowledge is that they suffer from […]