Innovation for the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law

Abstract

Innovation is crucial to us. It is our iPods. Our YouTubes. Our prescription drugs. We may not always focus on innovation's importance, but we cannot imagine life without it. Nor can our economy survive without it.

Innovation has been threatened in recent years. Part of the blame, surprisingly enough, lies with the U.S. legal system. The intellectual property (IP) and antitrust laws are not being used most effectively to foster innovation.

Innovation in the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law aims to reverse this trend. It offers ten revolutionary proposals to foster innovation. The proposals address generic drugs, pharmaceutical mergers, peer-to-peer (P2P) software, statutory damages, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), BlackBerry devices, biotechnology research tools, valid patents, and countless other cutting-edge challenges.

The proposals improve our patent system. They show how copyright law can promote innovation and not quash fledgling technology manufacturers. And they illustrate how antitrust can incorporate innovation, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry.

The book also forges two new paths. First, it dips into a rich business literature to import ideas on disruptive innovation and user innovation. Second, it replaces the 20th-century view that the antitrust and IP laws are in conflict with a 21st-century framework that treats them as collaborators, allowing each to borrow ideas from, and improve the operation of, the other.

Finally, the book includes an accessible primer on IP and antitrust that provides policymakers, academics, lawyers, and other interested readers with the tools needed to learn the areas and follow the breaking innovation stories of the day. Innovation in the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law provides a comprehensive framework for the patent, copyright, and antitrust laws to promote innovation.

Keywords: innovation, patent, copyright, antitrust, IP-antitrust intersection, P2P, statutory damages, DMCA, post-grant opposition, eBay, biotechnology research tools, material transfer agreements (MTAs), innovation markets, standard-setting organizations (SSOs), Hatch-Waxman Act, pharmaceutical settlements

JEL Classification: I18, K21, L40, L41, L43, L65, L82, O30, O31, O34, O38