Over the last decade, I have become a big fan of Apple products. They simply work; they don't make me think! In fact, we have five iPhones (will be six if son #2 gets straight A's this quarter), four Macbook Pros, a Macbook, and a number of iPods.
What's this have to do with patents? I don't like picking on Google but the Android software seems to copy some of Apple's software. In economics, we might say Google appears to be "free riding" on Apple's effort. You innovate since that is hard and expensive, you put it out in the public and I will wait to see if the market likes it, and if so, copy your innovation. In The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law, Judge Richard Posner and Professor William Landes state the consequence of giving expansive intellectual property protection is balanced by the potentially debilitating effect of free riding on the production of goods that involve a high ratio of fixed to marginal costs such as the iPhone. Thus, each time I hear Apple is successful in enforcing its patents on features that differentiate it, I think good for Apple (and me). Thus, I was glad to hear on Saturday that Judge Posner was siding with Apple for the most part on the touch screen patent lawsuit against Motorola Mobility.
Florian Mueller has a detailed account of Apple's victory here.
Apple Insider has a nice summary plus interesting comments here.
Copyright © 2012 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label legal scholarship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label legal scholarship. Show all posts
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Stanford Professor Mark Lemley's Things You Should Care About in the New Patent Statute
I had the pleasure of speaking with Professor Mark Lemley at the Advanced Patent Law Institute, Palo Alto on December 8-9, 2011.
Professor Lemley has authored and co-authored many papers with penetrating insights into the US patent system. He may be even the most prolific patent scholar of our time given he ranks third in total downloads among all law professors. He mostly writes about intellectual property and patent law, presumably niche topics with a small audience, so this is quite a feat.
I commented we have been around this for years, but it must be difficult for people getting into US patent law now given all these changes. He replied you can imagine the challenge I have teaching two bodies of US patent law (past law and the America Invents Act law (AIA)) to my class at Stanford.
How do we address the changes and complexity in US patent law today? An important part of understanding the AIA is identifying the effective dates. To help you avoid being buried in all the details, I point to Professor Lemley's Things You Should Care About in the New Patent Statute which outlines twenty significant AIA changes by their effective dates.
If you are interested here's a link to Professor Lemley's other papers.
Copyright © 2012 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.
Professor Lemley has authored and co-authored many papers with penetrating insights into the US patent system. He may be even the most prolific patent scholar of our time given he ranks third in total downloads among all law professors. He mostly writes about intellectual property and patent law, presumably niche topics with a small audience, so this is quite a feat.
I commented we have been around this for years, but it must be difficult for people getting into US patent law now given all these changes. He replied you can imagine the challenge I have teaching two bodies of US patent law (past law and the America Invents Act law (AIA)) to my class at Stanford.
How do we address the changes and complexity in US patent law today? An important part of understanding the AIA is identifying the effective dates. To help you avoid being buried in all the details, I point to Professor Lemley's Things You Should Care About in the New Patent Statute which outlines twenty significant AIA changes by their effective dates.
If you are interested here's a link to Professor Lemley's other papers.
Copyright © 2012 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.
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