This is a response to the commentary by Professor David H. Blankfein-Tabachnick (“B-T”) on my book, Justifying Intellectual Property (JIP) (2011). In JIP, I describe IP law at three levels: foundations, midlevel principles, and specific doctrines and institutions. At the bottom are foundational justifications for the field, ultimate rationales for why a society would have […]
All Work By Robert P. Merges
An Estoppel Doctrine for Patented Standards
Technical standards, such as interface protocols or file formats, are extremely important in the “network industries” that add so much value to the world economy today. Under some circumstances, the assertion of patent rights against established industry standards can seriously disrupt these network industries. We have in mind two particularly disruptive tactics: (1) the “snake […]