The Case For Patents

The Case for Patents offers an affirmative case for the many economic benefits of the patent system and shows how patents provide incentives for invention, innovation, and technological change. The discussion highlights the many contributions of patents to economic growth and development. The Case for Patents helps restore balance to public policy debates by recognizing the important contributions of the patent system.

Patent Law: Cases, Problems, and Materials is a free casebook, co-authored by Professor Jonathan S. Masur (University of Chicago Law School) and Professor Lisa Larrimore Ouellette (Stanford Law School). The casebook is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. A digital version of the casebook can be downloaded free online at patentcasebook.org, and a printed copy can be purchased on Amazon at cost.

The purchase of this ebook edition does not entitle you to receive access to the Connected eBook on CasebookConnect. You will need to purchase a new print book to get access to the full experience including: lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities, plus an outline tool and other helpful resources. This comprehensive and up-to-date casebook on the law of patents features helpful introductory text, technologically-accessible cases, detailed comments, comparative, policy, and patent reform perspectives. The new Fifth Edition offers up-to-date Federal Circuit and Supreme Court case law, including Helsinn, Impression Products, Halo, and Promega, as well as detailed comments following the principal cases. This edition also features enhanced policy and comparative perspectives, as well as additional materials on patent reform perspectives (e.g. America Invents Act). New to the 5th Edition: Up-to-date federal circuit and Supreme Court case law, including Helsinn, Impression Products, and Halo Detailed substantive comments following the principal cases More statistics and charts, particularly relating to USPTO decision making and PTAB inter partes review Enhanced Policy and Comparative Perspectives Enhanced Patent Reform Perspectives (e.g. America Invents Act) Patent statute (both pre- and post-AIA) included in the back of the book Greater citation and discussion of patent law academic and empirical literature New and updated PowerPoint slides and companion website Professors and students will benefit from: Richness in doctrine, policy, and theory Concise, but thorough coverage Logical and accessible sequencing of chapters Helpful introductions to each chapter, transitional text within sections, and introductions and background information for most cases Detailed comments sections follow the cases, delving into the doctrine and policy, and comparative perspectives Perspectives throughout that provide stimulating points for discussion

A lean yet comprehensive casebook on the law of patents that features helpful introductory text, technologically-accessible cases, detailed comments, comparative and policy perspectives, and statutes Incorporates the America Invents Act, the most sweeping changes to the patent statute since 1952 The move from a first-to-invent priority system to a first-inventor-to-file system Significant changes to 35 U.S.C. section 102 Post-grant review of patent applications Inter-partes review of patents. Important new Supreme Court and Federal Circuit cases, including Myriad Genetics, Prometheus Labs, Global Tech, Akamai, Bowman, Actavis, and Therasense Updated Comments and Comparative and Policy Perspectives New and updated PowerPoint slides and website

This essay is the introduction to a book of the same title, forthcoming in summer of 2021 from Oxford University Press. The purpose is to document the ways in which patent systems are products of battles over the economic surplus from innovation. The features of these systems take shape as interests at different points in the production chain seek advantage in any way they can, and consequently, they are riven with imperfections. The interesting historical question is why US-style patent systems with all their imperfections have come to dominate other methods of encouraging inventive activity. The essays in the book suggest that the creation of a tradable but temporary property right facilitates the transfer of technological knowledge and thus fosters a highly productive decentralized ecology of inventors and firms.

Introduction -- Defining the public interest in the US and European patent systems -- Confronting the questions of life-form patentability -- Commodification, animal dignity, and patent-system publics -- Forging new patent politics through the human embryonic stem cell debates -- Human genes, plants, and the distributive implications of patents -- Conclusion

The authors feel that students considering patent law for the first time should look forward to learning legal tenets as venerable as the Constitution itself yet as current as the latest development from the laboratory bench. This casebook is comparative and constantly refers to aspects of foreign patent systems. This is with the understanding that patent practitioners without an understanding of the international patent system place their clients at a significant disadvantage.

This new edition captures all of the recent and rapidly emerging changes in case law and legislation, yet retains its student- and professor-friendly approach to the policies and rules of patent law. This version teaches the far-reaching legal tenets of patent law that are as venerable as the Constitution itself and yet as current as the latest developments from the laboratory bench. Like its successful predecessors, this casebook draws on insights from other areas of US law and from aspects of foreign systems as well. Because patent law plays a vital role in the international marketplace, students must understand US law in the context of international patent systems to properly represent their clients. This casebook and its robust teacher's manual make this important area of law accessible to every student.

This comprehensive and up-to-date casebook on the law of patents features helpful introductory text, technologically-accessible cases, detailed comments, comparative, policy, and patent reform perspectives. The new Fifth Edition offers up-to-date Federal Circuit and Supreme Court case law, including Helsinn, Impression Products, Halo, and Promega, as well as detailed comments following the principal cases. This edition also features enhanced policy and comparative perspectives, as well as additional materials on patent reform perspectives (e.g., America Invents Act). New to the 6th Edition: Restructuring and resequencing of chapters Extensive discussion of America Invents Act New Principal cases Updated Comments Professors and students will benefit from: Richness in doctrine, policy, and theory. Concise, but thorough coverage. Logical and accessible sequencing of chapters. Helpful introductions to each chapter, transitional text within sections, and introductions and background information for most cases. Detailed comments sections follow the cases, delving into the doctrine and policy, and comparative perspectives. Perspectives throughout that provide stimulating points for discussion.

The U.S. patent system is in an accelerating race with human ingenuity and investments in innovation. In many respects the system has responded with admirable flexibility, but the strain of continual technological change and the greater importance ascribed to patents in a knowledge economy are exposing weaknesses including questionable patent quality, rising transaction costs, impediments to the dissemination of information through patents, and international inconsistencies. A panel including a mix of legal expertise, economists, technologists, and university and corporate officials recommends significant changes in the way the patent system operates. A Patent System for the 21st Century urges creation of a mechanism for post-grant challenges to newly issued patents, reinvigoration of the non-obviousness standard to quality for a patent, strengthening of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, simplified and less costly litigation, harmonization of the U.S., European, and Japanese examination process, and protection of some research from patent infringement liability.