Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 2016
Publication Information
83 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1943 (2016)
Abstract
This Article is the first to seriously scrutinize the claim that patent challenges lead to increased competition. It identifies a number of conditions that must hold for a patent challenge to provide this particular benefit, and evaluates the reasonableness of assuming that the pro-competitive benefits of patent challenges are generally available. As it turns out, there are a number of ways these conditions can and regularly do fail. This Article synthesizes legal doctrine, recent empirical scholarship, and several novel case studies to identify categories of challenges in which the potential benefits for competition are smaller than previously thought or, in some cases, completely unavailable.
This analysis has a number of implications for patent law and policy. First, it provides guidance for how the Patent Office should administer its new review authority under the America Invents Act. Second, it exposes weaknesses in judicially created policies intended to encourage more patent challenges. Third, it vindicates the present scope of the regulatory bounties provided under the Hatch-Waxman Act and cautions against recently proposed expansions of these incentives to other technology areas. Fourth, it sheds new light on the competitive consequences of patent settlements, and thus informs how the Court’s recent Actavis decision should be applied in future cases.
Recommended Citation
Stephen Yelderman,
Do Patent Challenges Increase Competition?,
83 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1943 (2016).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/1276