Volume 69
Introduction
Nov. 28, 2016—Symposium Introduction: The Disclosure Function of the Patent System AUTHOR Professor of Law, Professor of Chemistry, and Chancellor Faculty Fellow, Vanderbilt University.
Patent Disclosures and Time
Nov. 28, 2016—Patent Disclosures and Time AUTHOR Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law.
Legal Fictions and the Role of Information in Patent Law
Nov. 28, 2016—Legal Fictions and the Role of Information in Patent Law AUTHOR Galen J. Roush Professor of Law and Director, Spangenberg Center of Law, Technology & the Arts, Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Physicalism and Patent Theory
Nov. 28, 2016—Physicalism and Patent Theory ABSTRACT United States patent law’s view on the need for a physical embodiment of the invention, and the continued production and use of an embodiment, has varied over the last two centuries. In the early days, the requirement for “physicalism” was high, with the inventor being required to actually reduce the...
Nontechnical Disclosure
Nov. 28, 2016—Nontechnical Disclosure AUTHOR Associate Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law.
Patent Silences
Nov. 28, 2016—Patent Silences ABSTRACT A great deal has been said in recent years about patent disclosure. But to say that there is a disclosure function in the patent system implies that there is non-disclosure functioning in the patent system as well. For some information to be disclosed in a patent, other information must go undisclosed; for...
Disclosing Designs
Nov. 28, 2016—Disclosing Designs AUTHORS Jason Du Mont Microsoft Fellow, Center for Intellectual Property Research, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington; Doctoral Candidate, International Max Planck Research School for Competition and Innovation. Mark D. Janis Robert A. Lucas Chair of Law and Director, Center for Intellectual Property Research, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington. ...
The Doctrinal Structure of Patent Law’s Enablement Requirement
Nov. 28, 2016—The Doctrinal Structure of Patent Law’s Enablement Requirement ABSTRACT This Article examines the formal law of enablement, focusing on a perceived split in the enablement doctrine: whether disclosure of a single mode of an invention is necessarily sufficient to satisfy the requirement of enablement or whether the full scope of the claim must be enabled....
Dynamic Patent Disclosure
Nov. 28, 2016—Dynamic Patent Disclosure AUTHOR Professor of Law, New York University School of Law; Co-Director, Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy.
Photocopies, Patents, and Knowledge Transfer: “The Uneasy Case” of Justice Breyer’s Patentable Subject Matter Jurisprudence
Nov. 28, 2016—Photocopies, Patents, and Knowledge Transfer: “The Uneasy Case” of Justice Breyer’s Patentable Subject Matter Jurisprudence ABSTRACT One aspect of Justice Stephen Breyer’s discomfort with patents, as expressed in his opinion for the Supreme Court in Mayo v. Prometheus and his dissent from the order dismissing certiorari in LabCorp v. Metabolite, is strikingly similar to one...
The Structural Implications of Inventors’ Disclosure Obligations
Nov. 28, 2016—The Structural Implications of Inventors’ Disclosure Obligations ABSTRACT Disclosure theory posits that inventors must disclose knowledge about their inventions and make that knowledge freely available for certain uses during the term of a patent as part of the price that they pay for their exclusive patent rights. This Article identifies an overlooked implication of this...
Pierson, Peer Review, and Patent Law
Nov. 28, 2016—Pierson, Peer Review, and Patent Law ABSTRACT When has a researcher done enough to merit a patent? Should the patent belong to the researcher who first suggests an invention or the one who brings it to fruition? The canonical dispute over a fox in Pierson v. Post is used to illustrate the competing policy considerations...
Contextualizing Patent Disclosure
Nov. 28, 2016—Contextualizing Patent Disclosure ABSTRACT One of the main justifications for a patent system is that patents disclose useful technical information that others can learn from. However, patents are not performing this function well. The average patent is written in legalese, uses vague language, and is hard to connect to commercial activity. Legal scholars have responded...
Tribute to Elizabeth Chitwood
Oct. 17, 2016—Tribute to Elizabeth Chitwood TRIBUTE Elizabeth “Beth” Chitwood was one of the newest members of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Our community mourns her unexpected loss and is grateful for the time we were able to share with her. The following Tribute briefly highlights Beth’s contributions to the Vanderbilt Law community and the Vanderbilt Law Review....
Normalizing Erie
Oct. 17, 2016—Normalizing Erie ABSTRACT This Article argues that the Erie doctrine should be normalized by bringing it into line with ordinary doctrines of federalism. Under ordinary federalism doctrines—such as the dormant commerce clause, implied preemption, federal preclusion law, and certain special “enclaves” of federal common law—courts will displace state law to protect federal interests even when neither...
Agencies’ Obligation to Interpret the Statute
Oct. 17, 2016—Agencies’ Obligation to Interpret the Statute ABSTRACT Conventionally, when a statute delegates authority to an agency, courts defer to agency interpretations of that statute. Most agencies and scholars view such deference as a grant of permission to the agency to adopt any reasonable interpretation. That is wrong, jurisprudentially and ethically. An agency that commands deference...