Here’s Posner, here’s the ruling on Samsung. Don’t even get me started on genetic patenting. That’s outrageous. I’m outraged.
There’s some great stuff by Posner:
There are a variety of measures that could be taken to alleviate the problems I’ve described. They include: reducing the patent term for inventors in industries that do not have the peculiar characteristics of pharmaceuticals that I described; instituting a system of compulsory licensing of patented inventions; eliminating court trials including jury trials in patent cases by expanding the authority and procedures of the Patent and Trademark Office to make it the trier of patent cases, subject to limited appellate review in the courts; forbidding patent trolling by requiring the patentee to produce the patented invention within a specified period, or lose the patent; and (what is beginning) provide special training for federal judges who volunteer to preside over patent litigation.
Patents are abused, notably by Apple, but don’t hate the player, hate the game. It’s silly that judges are the ones driving change.
Incidentally, though, it’s interesting that judges ARE a channel for real regulatory / legal change. I was really surprised at how Russ Roberts and Stiglitz mostly agreed with each other in this podcast, except that Stiglitz is optimistic of our ability to change society through the government and Roberts isn’t.
Will someone sue the Federal Reserve in court claiming that they aren’t fulfilling their dual mandate? Is that even possible?
Not Unreasonable 