Table Of ContentRESEARCH HANDBOOK ON THE ECONOMICS OF
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW
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RESEARCH HANDBOOKS IN LAW AND ECONOMICS
Series Editors: Richard A. Posner, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
and Senior Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School, USA and Francesco Parisi, Oppenheimer
Wolff and Donnelly Professor of Law, University of Minnesota, USA and Professor of Economics,
University of Bologna, Italy
Edited by highly distinguished scholars, the landmark reference works in this series offer advanced
treatments of specific topics that reflect the state-of-the-art of research in law and economics,
while also expanding the law and economics debate. Each volume’s accessible yet sophisticated
contributions from top international researchers make it an indispensable resource for students
and scholars alike.
Titles in this series include:
Research Handbook on the Economics of Property Law
Edited by Kenneth Ayotte and Henry E. Smith
Research Handbook on the Economics of Family Law
Edited by Lloyd R. Cohen and Joshua D. Wright
Research Handbook on the Economics of Antitrust Law
Edited by Einer R. Elhauge
Research Handbook on the Economics of Corporate Law
Edited by Brett McDonnell and Claire A. Hill
Research Handbook on the Economics of European Union Law
Edited by Thomas Eger and Hans-Bernd Schäfer
Research Handbook on the Economics of Criminal Law
Edited by Alon Harel and Keith N. Hylton
Research Handbook on the Economics of Labor and Employment Law
Edited by Michael L. Wachter and Cynthia L. Estlund
Research Handbook on Austrian Law and Economics
Edited by Todd J. Zywicki and Peter J. Boettke
Research Handbook on Behavioral Law and Economics
Edited by Joshua C. Teitelbaum and Kathryn Zeiler
Research Handbook on the Economics of Intellectual Property Law
Volume 1: Theory
Edited by Ben Depoorter and Peter S. Menell
Research Handbook on the Economics of Intellectual Property Law
Volume 2: Analytical Methods
Edited by Peter S. Menell and David L. Schwartz
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Research Handbook on the
Economics of Intellectual
Property Law
Volume 1: Theory
Edited by
Ben Depoorter
University of California, Hastings College of Law, USA
and Ghent University, Belgium
Peter S. Menell
University of California, Berkeley School of Law, USA
RESEARCH HANDBOOKS IN LAW AND ECONOMICS
Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
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© The Editors and Contributors Severally 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or
otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
The Lypiatts
15 Lansdown Road
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 2JA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
William Pratt House
9 Dewey Court
Northampton
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USA
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019945636
This book is available electronically in the
Law subject collection
DOI 10.4337/9781789903997
ISBN 978 1 84844 536 9 (2 volume set)
ISBN 978 1 78990 399 7 (eBook)
Typeset by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
6
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Contents
List of contributors vii
PART I INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AS PROPERTY
1 Intellectual property as property 2
Molly Shaffer Van Houweling
2 Anticommons, transaction costs, and patent aggregators 27
Rebecca S. Eisenberg
3 Governing intellectual property 47
Henry E. Smith
PART II IP AND INCENTIVES
4 Philosophical foundations of IP law: the law and economics paradigm 72
Robert P. Merges
5 Intellectual property law and the promotion of welfare 98
Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan S. Masur
6 Economic models of innovation: stand-alone and cumulative creativity 119
Peter S. Menell and Suzanne Scotchmer
7 Economic analysis of network effects and intellectual property 157
Peter S. Menell
8 Intellectual property and competition 231
Herbert Hovenkamp
9 Intellectual property and the economics of product differentiation 262
Christopher S. Yoo
10 Price discrimination and intellectual property 281
Michael J. Meurer and Ben Depoorter
11 When are IP rights necessary? Evidence from innovation in IP’s
negative space 309
Kal Raustiala and Christopher Jon Sprigman
12 Open innovation and ex ante licensing 330
Michael J. Burstein
13 Prize and reward alternatives to intellectual property 350
Michael Abramowicz
v
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vi Research handbook on the economics of IP law volume 1
PART III IP COSTS
14 Tailoring intellectual property rights to reduce uniformity cost 377
Michael W. Carroll
15 Intellectual property enforcement costs 407
Ben Depoorter
16 Economic analysis of intellectual property notice and disclosure 424
Peter S. Menell
PART IV IP AND INSTITUTIONS
17 Patent institutions: shifting interactions between legal actors 473
Arti K. Rai
18 The economics of collective management 489
Daniel Gervais
19 ‘The common law’ in the law and economics of intellectual property 508
Shyamkrishna Balganesh
20 In the shadow of the law: the role of custom in intellectual property 526
Jennifer E. Rothman
21 Infrastructure theory and IP 551
Brett Frischmann
PART V IP, DEVELOPMENT, AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE
22 Creative development: copyright and emerging creative industries 582
Sean A. Pager
23 Intellectual property and economic development: a guide for scholarly
and policy research 636
Shubha Ghosh
24 Economic development and intellectual property rights: key analytical
results from economics 656
Keith E. Maskus
Index 677
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Contributors
Michael Abramowicz, Professor of Law, George Washington University, USA
Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School, USA
Christopher Buccafusco, Professor of Law and Director of the Intellectual Property and
Information Law Program, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New York, USA
Michael J. Burstein, Professor of Law, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New
York, USA
Michael W. Carroll, Professor of Law and Director of the Program on Information Justice
and Intellectual Property, American University Washington College of Law, USA
Ben Depoorter, Max Radin Chair and Distinguished Professor of Law, University of
California, Hastings College of the Law and Affiliate Scholar, Stanford Law School,
Center for Internet and Society, USA; CASLE, Ghent University, Belgium
Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Robert and Barbara Luciano Professor of Law, Michigan Law,
University of Michigan, USA
Brett Frischmann, Charles Widger Endowed University Professor in Law, Business and
Economics Charles Widger School of Law, Villanova University, Villanova, Philadelphia,
USA
Daniel Gervais, Milton R. Underwood Chair in Law and Director of the Vanderbilt
Intellectual Property Program, Vanderbilt University Law School, USA
Shubha Ghosh, Crandall Melvin Professor of Law and Director, Syracuse Intellectual
Property Law Institute (SIPLI) and IP & Tech Commercialization Curricular Law
Program, Syracuse University College of Law, USA
Herbert Hovenkamp, James G. Dinan University Professor, Penn Law and the Wharton
School, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Keith E. Maskus, Arts and Sciences Professor of Distinction, Economics Department,
University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
Jonathan S. Masur, John P. Wilson Professor of Law and David and Celia Hilliard
Research Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School, USA
Peter S. Menell, Koret Professor of Law and Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and
Technology, Berkeley School of Law, University of California, USA
Robert P. Merges, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati Professor of Law and Director
of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Michael J. Meurer, Abraham and Lillian Benton Scholar and Professor of Law, Boston
University School of Law, USA
vii
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viii Research handbook on the economics of IP law volume 1
Sean A. Pager, Professor of Law and Associate Director of the Intellectual Property,
Information and Communications Law Program, Michigan State University College of
Law, USA
Arti K. Rai, Elvin R. Latty Professor of Law, Duke Law School, Faculty Director of the
Duke Law Center for Innovation Policy, and Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Initiative Research Fellow, USA
Kal Raustiala, Professor and Director of the UCLA Ronald W. Burkle Center for
International Relations, UCLA Law School, USA
Jennifer E. Rothman, Professor of Law and Joseph Scott Fellow, Loyola Law School,
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA
Suzanne Scotchmer, formerly Professor of Economics, Public Policy, and Law, University
of California, Berkeley, USA, who died in 2014
Henry E. Smith, Fessenden Professor of Law and Director of the Project on the
Foundations of Private Law, Harvard Law School, USA
Christopher Jon Sprigman, Professor, New York University School of Law and Co-Director
of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy, USA
Molly Shaffer Van Houweling, Harold C. Hohbach Distinguished Professor of Patent
Law and Intellectual Property, Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology,
and Associate Dean for J.D. Curriculum and Teaching, University of California, Berkeley,
USA
Christopher S. Yoo, John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer
and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA
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PART I
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
AS PROPERTY
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1. Intellectual property as property
Molly Shaffer Van Houweling*
1
Contents
I. Introduction
II. ‘Property’ and IP
III. Distinguishing Tangible and Intellectual Resources as Objects of Property
A. Rivalry
B. Excludability
C. Costs
IV. Three Cross-Cutting Themes
A. Property and Possession
1. Possession, property origins, and the public domain
2. The challenges of non-possessory property
B. Property and Information
C. Property and Time
V. Conclusion
References
I. INTRODUCTION
First-year law students learn early on that lawyers think of property not ‘as a relationship
between a person (the owner) and a thing (that is owned)’ but rather as ‘relationships
among people with respect to things’ (Dukeminier et al., 2014, p. 51, n. 33). This corrective
appears perhaps to reorient legal thinking away from a layperson’s preoccupation with
things and toward a more sophisticated focus on people and their legal relations (see Grey,
1980, for an extreme example of this view). But, in fact, what makes property law distinc-
tive—in both its lay and expert formulations—is that the human relationships it governs
(unlike the human relationships governed by the law of torts or contracts) are always
mediated by things (see Smith, 2012). That these things carry legal implications with them
* Harold C. Hohbach Distinguished Professor of Patent Law and Intellectual Property;
Associate Dean, J.D. Curriculum and Teaching, University of California, Berkeley. Thanks to
James Hicks for excellent research assistance. This chapter is licensed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, with
attribution to Molly Shaffer Van Houweling as the author and to the original publication venue:
Peter S. Menell and Ben Depoorter, eds. 2019. Research Handbook on the Economics of Intellectual
Property Law. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing. The
terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
(last accessed March 19, 2019).
2
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