American Litigiousness and Patents

by Steve Reiss (stevenreiss@scienbizippc.com)

I bet you thought I was going to name drop the coffee-spill case. If so, you read the title of the post too quickly and missed the "and "Patents." part.

But since you are visiting my blog, I will mention that as an attorney, I did not agree with the general coffee-spill policy of Liebeck v. McDonalds (1994). But, considering the various internal McDonald's memos that were release in discovery, I agree with Professor Turley that this case was "a meaningful and worthy lawsuit."

Well, then, what am I going for?

Everything?

As a famous patent-economist-historian says:

Every new innovation that mattered in the marketplace brought uncertainties, conflicts, and consequences that were initially processed in state and federal courts, until these issues were resolved through various institutional mechanisms. Such disputes did not only relate to questions of patent rights ...

 

B. Zorina Khan,"Trolls And Other Patent Inventions:Economic History And The Patent Controversy In The Twenty-First Century", 21 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 825, 838 (2014).

Professor Zorina Khan

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