An Organizational History of the U.S. Patent System

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-114
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Government Funding ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Patent System ◽  
Organizational History ◽  
System P ◽  
Contractual Relationships ◽  
History Of ◽  
Firm Structures ◽  
The U.S

This chapter presents a novel organizational history of the U.S. patent system during 1890–2006. Based on a division of U.S. patent history into two strong-patent/weak-antitrust periods (1890 to mid-1930s and 1980s to 2006) and one weak-patent/strong-antitrust period (late 1930s to 1970s), it describes evidence relating to concurrent changes in the mix of organizational forms used to structure the innovation and commercialization process. Both strong-IP periods are characterized by substantially disaggregated supply chains in which innovators enter into financing, licensing, and other contractual relationships with third parties to execute the commercialization process. By contrast, the weak-IP regime that prevailed during the postwar decades principally supported innovation by large integrated firms, often supplemented by extensive government funding. Historical organizational trends support the hypothesis that weak-IP regimes shift innovation and commercialization activities toward integrated firm structures, while strong-IP regimes sustain organizationally diverse innovation ecosystems that support a range of integrated and disintegrated structures.

Innovators, Firms, and Markets

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Patent Protection ◽  
Patent System ◽  
Venture Capitalists ◽  
Organizational History ◽  
Innovation Ecosystems ◽  
Technical Requirements ◽  
Organizational Type ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
History Of ◽  
The U.S

This book presents a theoretical, historical, and empirical account of the relationship between intellectual property (IP) rights, organizational type, and market structure. Patents expand transactional choice by enabling smaller research-and-development (R&D)-intensive firms to compete against larger firms that wield difficult-to-replicate financing, production, and distribution capacities. In particular, patents enable upstream firms that specialize in innovation to exchange informational assets with downstream firms that specialize in commercialization, lowering capital and technical requirements that might otherwise impede entry. These theoretical expectations track a novel organizational history of the U.S. patent system during 1890–2006. Periods of strong patent protection tend to support innovation ecosystems in which smaller innovators can monetize R&D through financing, licensing, and other relationships with funding and commercialization partners. Periods of weak patent protection tend to support innovation ecosystems in which innovation and commercialization mostly take place within the end-to-end structures of large integrated firms. The proposed link between IP rights and organizational type tracks evidence on historical and contemporary patterns in IP lobbying and advocacy activities. In general, larger and more integrated firms (outside pharmaceuticals) tend to advocate for weaker patents, while smaller and less integrated firms (and venture capitalists who back those firms) tend to advocate for stronger patents. Contrary to conventional assumptions, the economics, history, and politics of the U.S. patent system suggest that weak IP rights often shelter large incumbents from the entry threat posed by smaller R&D-specialist entities.

Constructing an Objective History of the U.S. Patent System

2020 ◽  
pp. 65-88
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Patent Law ◽  
Patent System ◽  
Antitrust Law ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
System P ◽  
Injunctive Relief ◽  
History Of ◽  
Patent Applications ◽  
The U.S

This chapter presents a history of the U.S. patent system based on quantitative and qualitative evidence relating to patentees’ expectations that courts will uphold the validity of contested patents, find infringement, and award injunctive relief against infringing parties. Additionally, this chapter describes historical changes in antitrust law that have impacted patentees’ ability to enter into licensing and other patent-dependent transactions. Based on these features of patent law and antitrust-related patent law, supplemented by background institutional developments, the history of the U.S. patent system during 1890–2006 consists of three periods: (i) a strong-patent, weak-antitrust period from 1890 through the mid-1930s; (ii) a weak-patent, strong-antitrust period from the late 1930s through the 1970s; and (iii) a strong-patent, weak-antitrust period from the early 1980s through 2006. Historical trends in the volume of patent applications by U.S. inventors are consistent with this division of U.S. patent history.

4 Decisions and Orders of International Institutions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley Curtis A
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
System P ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The U.S

This chapter considers the status in the U.S. legal system of decisions and orders of international institutions to which the United States is a party. It begins with a description of various constitutional doctrines and principles that are potentially implicated by delegations of authority to international institutions, as well as general concerns that have been raised about such delegations relating to democratic accountability. The chapter also recounts the long history of U.S. engagement with international arbitration and the constitutional debates that this engagement has sometimes triggered. Extensive consideration is given to litigation concerning the consular notice provisions in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, including efforts by criminal defendants to enforce decisions by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) interpreting these provisions. The U.S. relationship with other international institutions, such as the World Trade Organization and the International Criminal Court, are also considered. The chapter concludes by discussing the extent to which constitutional concerns relating to international delegations can be adequately addressed by presuming that the orders and decisions of international institutions are non–self-executing in the U.S. legal system.

Digitalized Invention, Decentralized Patent System

2021 ◽  
pp. 120-144
Author(s):  
Feroz Ali
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Digital Photography ◽  
Patent Law ◽  
Patent System ◽  
Patent Office ◽  
Working Models ◽  
System P ◽  
History Of

Throughout the history of patent law, the manner of representation of invention influenced the process of the patent office in prosecuting them. This chapter traces how changes in the representation of the invention—from material to textual to digital—transformed patent prosecution. Early inventions were represented by working models, the materialized invention that needed little or no examination by the patent office, as they were the inventions themselves. Substantive examination became necessary when the representation of the invention shifted from material to textual, the point in history where the invention became textualized and represented by the patent specification, the written document that encompassed the invention. The textualized invention, apart from effecting critical changes in patent prosecution, centralized the operations of the patent office. With the adoption of new technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), the manner of representation of invention will undergo yet another change resulting in the further evolution of patent prosecution. Like digital photography which changed the representation of images by radically changing the backend process, the digitalized invention will change the backend process of the patent office, ie, patent prosecution. The most significant systemic consequence of the digitalization of the invention will be the decentralization of patent system.

4 Decisions and Orders of International Institutions

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley Curtis A
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
System P ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The U.S

This chapter considers the status in the U.S. legal system of decisions and orders of international institutions to which the United States is a party. It begins with a description of various constitutional doctrines and principles that are potentially implicated by delegations of authority to international institutions. The chapter also recounts the long history of U.S. engagement with international arbitration and the constitutional debates that this engagement has sometimes triggered. Extensive consideration is given to litigation concerning the consular notice provisions in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The U.S. relationship with other international institutions, such as the World Trade Organization and the International Criminal Court, are also considered. The chapter concludes by considering the extent to which constitutional concerns relating to international delegations are adequately addressed by presuming that the orders and decisions of international institutions are non–self-executing in the U.S. legal system.

Conclusion: What is Speculative Empiricism?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Didier Debaise
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Speculative Philosophy ◽  
System P ◽  
History Of ◽  
Selection Of

Process and Reality ends with a warning: ‘[t]he chief danger to philosophy is narrowness in the selection of evidence’ (PR, 337). Although this danger of narrowness might emerge from the ‘idiosyncrasies and timidities of particular authors, of particular social groups, of particular schools of thought, of particular epochs in the history of civilization’ (PR, 337), we should not be mistaken: it occurs within philosophy, in its activity, its method. And the fact that this issue arises at the end of Process and Reality reveals the ambition that has accompanied its composition: Whitehead has resisted this danger through the form and ambition of his speculative construction. The temptation of a narrowness in selection attempts to expel speculative philosophy at the same time as it haunts each part of its system.

An American Language

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosina Lozano
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Language Recognition ◽  
Political Language ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
History Of ◽  
The U.S

An American Language is a political history of the Spanish language in the United States. The nation has always been multilingual and the Spanish language in particular has remained as an important political issue into the present. After the U.S.-Mexican War, the Spanish language became a language of politics as Spanish speakers in the U.S. Southwest used it to build territorial and state governments. In the twentieth century, Spanish became a political language where speakers and those opposed to its use clashed over what Spanish's presence in the United States meant. This book recovers this story by using evidence that includes Spanish language newspapers, letters, state and territorial session laws, and federal archives to profile the struggle and resilience of Spanish speakers who advocated for their language rights as U.S. citizens. Comparing Spanish as a language of politics and as a political language across the Southwest and noncontiguous territories provides an opportunity to measure shifts in allegiance to the nation and exposes differing forms of nationalism. Language concessions and continued use of Spanish is a measure of power. Official language recognition by federal or state officials validates Spanish speakers' claims to US citizenship. The long history of policies relating to language in the United States provides a way to measure how U.S. visions of itself have shifted due to continuous migration from Latin America. Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens are crucial arbiters of Spanish language politics and their successes have broader implications on national policy and our understanding of Americans.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Excel in Business but Not without Risks

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
Bill Imada
Keyword(s):  
Asian Americans ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Pacific Islanders ◽  
Significant Growth ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mainstream Society ◽  
American Society ◽  
The U.S

In recent years, data has shown that there has been significant growth in Asian American Pacific Islander-owned (AAPI) enterprises. Driven by demographic changes, related in large part to the history of immigration policy, the AAPI population has been growing, and this has been accompanied by AAPI innovators and entrepreneurs leaving greater marks on American society and the U.S. economy. This growth, however, is not without risks and threats. The legacy of being “othered” by mainstream society means that AAPI success in business and in the corporate landscape can be met with resentment and criticism. This article explores the history of AAPI entrepreneurship and current trends. It also examines the challenges that the community may continue to face and offers recommendations on how to ensure continued growth and expanded opportunities for AAPIs in business.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document