Week 1 (Jan. 24).  Patents and Progress: Economic Theories

• Robert P. Merges & Richard R. Nelson, On the Complex Economics of Patent Scope, 90 Colum. L. Rev. 839 (1990), pp. 839-44, 868-908 only.  [If you have not taken Patent Law, please also read pp. 844-68 as background.]
• John F. Duffy, Rethinking the Prospect Theory of Patents, 71 U. Chi. L. Rev. 439 (2003) (feel free to skim or skip pp. 469-75 and 480-82).

 

Week 2 (Jan. 31).  Copyright and Progress: Economic Theories

• Michael Abramowicz, A Theory of Copyright’s Derivative Right and Related Doctrines, 90 Minn. L. Rev. 317 (2005).
• William M. Landes & Richard A. Posner, Indefinitely Renewable Copyright, 70 U. Chi. L. Rev. 471 (2003).

 

Week 3 (Feb. 7).  Authorship and Inventorship

• Justin Hughes, The Personality Interests of Authors and Inventors in Intellectual Property, 16 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 81 (1998).
• Jessica Silbey, The Mythical Beginnings of Intellectual Property, 15 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 319 (2008).

 

Week 4 (Feb. 14).  Rationales for Trademark Protection

• Mark P. McKenna, The Normative Foundations of Trademark Law, 82 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1839 (2007).
• Barton Beebe, Search and Persuasion in Trademark Law, 103 Mich. L. Rev. 2020 (2005).

 

– no class on Feb. 21 (Presidents’ Day) –

 

Week 5 (THURS., Feb. 24).  Intellectual Property Rights and Market Ordering, part 1

• Robert P. Merges, Contracting Into Liability Rules: Intellectual Property Rights and Collective Rights Organizations, 84 Cal. L. Rev. 1293 (1996), pp. 1301-61 only.
• Gideon Parchomovsky & R. Polk Wagner, Patent Portfolios, 154 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1 (2005).

 

Week 6 (Feb. 28).  Intellectual Property Rights and Market Ordering, part 2

• James Gibson, Risk Aversion and Rights Accretion in Intellectual Property Law, 116 Yale L.J. 882 (2007).
• Oren Bracha, Standing Copyright Law on Its Head?  The Googlization of Everything and the Many Faces of Property, 85 Tex. L. Rev. 1799 (2007).

 

– no class on Mar. 7 (Spring Break) –

Week 7 (Mar. 14).  Patents and Scientific Research

• Arti Kaur Rai, Regulating Scientific Research: Intellectual Property and the Norms of Science, 94 Nw. U. L. Rev. 77 (1999).
• Rebecca Eisenberg, Noncompliance, Nonenforcement, Nonproblem?: Rethinking the Anticommons in Biomedical Research, 45 Houston L. Rev.  1059 (2008).

 

Week 8 (Mar. 21).  Commons-Based Production

• Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom (Yale Univ. Press 2006), chs. 3-4.
• William W. Fisher, The Implications for Law of User Innovation, 94 Minn. L. Rev. 1417 (2010).

 

Week 9 (Mar. 28).  Critical Perspectives on the “Free Culture” Movement

• Niva Elkin-Koren, What Contracts Cannot Do: The Limits of Private Ordering in Facilitating a Creative Commons, 74 Fordham L. Rev. 375 (2005).
• Rebecca Tushnet, Naming Rights: Attribution and Law, 2007 Utah L. Rev. 781.

Week 10 (Apr. 4). Economic Theories Revisited

• Brett Frischmann & Spencer Weber Waller, Revitalizing Essential Facilities, 75 Antitrust L.J. 1 (2008).
• Frank A. Pasquale, Toward an Ecology of Intellectual Property: Lessons from Environmental Economics for Valuing Copyright's Commons, 8 Yale J.L. & Tech. 78 (2006).
• Short presentations on research papers (optional, ungraded).

 

Week 11 (Apr. 11).  Intellectual Property and Globalization

• Anupam Chander & Madhavi Sunder, The Romance of the Public Domain, 92 Cal. L. Rev. 1331 (2004).
• Margaret Chon, Intellectual Property and the Development Divide, 27 Cardozo L. Rev. 2821 (2006)
• Short presentations on research papers (optional, ungraded).

 

Week 12 (Apr. 18).  Copyright and Culture

• Julie E. Cohen, Creativity and Culture in Copyright Theory, 40 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1151 (2007).
• Rebecca L. Tushnet, Economies of Desire: Fair Use and Marketplace Assumptions, 51 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 513 (2009).
• Short presentations on research papers (optional, ungraded).

 

Week 13 (Apr. 25).  Trademarks, Design, and Culture

• Barton Beebe, Intellectual Property Law and the Sumptuary Code, 123 Harv. L. Rev. 1 (2010).
• Short presentations on research papers (optional, ungraded).