Sabrina Safrin at Volokh on Chain Reactions in IP

by on March 5, 2007 · 2 comments

Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, law professor Sabrina Safrin is guest blogging about the development of intellectual property law, particularly patents, in light of patent-holder behavior. Her forthcoming law review article

argues that property rights evolve in reaction to each other. The creation of property rights for some engenders the demand for related property rights by others. These demands and resulting recognition of property rights may have little to do with the value of the resource in question or efficiency concerns.

Interesting idea, sort of a game-theoretic explanation for the recent explosion of patents, with an embedded suggestion that things are out of whack. Here’s Eugene’s introduction of her and her first post.

SHARE: 2 comments

About Jim Harper

Jim Harper is the Director of Information Policy Studies at The Cato Institute, the Editor of Web-based privacy think-tank Privacilla.org, and the Webmaster of WashingtonWatch.com. A Poli Sci major at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Jim served as Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly in his final year at Hastings College of the Law. Prior to becoming a policy analyst and advocate, Jim served as counsel to committees in both the U.S. House and Senate. He avoids genuine life experience by watching lots and lots of reality TV.

Read more articles by Jim Harper.

  • http://weblog.ipcentral.info/ Noel Le

    Jim, if you’re interested in the topic, here are some good articles on the inter-relatedness between IPRs, and IPRs and the public domain.

    Stuart Graham, The Complementary Use of Intellectual Property in Software: Evidence from Litigation, CENTER FOR EUROPEAN ECONOMIC RESEARCH (ZEW), June 2004. Mannheim, Germany.

    Robert Merges, A New Dynamism in the Public Domain, University of Chicago Law Review, Vol. 71, pp. 183-203, 2004.

  • http://weblog.ipcentral.info/ Noel Le

    Jim, if you’re interested in the topic, here are some good articles on the inter-relatedness between IPRs, and IPRs and the public domain.

    Stuart Graham, The Complementary Use of Intellectual Property in Software: Evidence from Litigation, CENTER FOR EUROPEAN ECONOMIC RESEARCH (ZEW), June 2004. Mannheim, Germany.

    Robert Merges, A New Dynamism in the Public Domain, University of Chicago Law Review, Vol. 71, pp. 183-203, 2004.

Previous post:

Next post: