Changes

The law literature has focused mainly on judicial reform and whether NPE infrigement cases should fall under the property rule or the liability rule. Farrand et al. (2011) and Helm and Lee (2008) tackle judicial reform in the patent system related to NPEs and Jones (2006) considers NPEs head on. Likewise there is a large sub-literature that considers the impact of the eBay/Merx decision from the Superb Court, which effective prevents NPEs, as well as many other inventors, from seeking injunctive relief. Typical papers include Eddings (2005),Golden (2006),Mersino (2007) and Maughan (2012). Helm (2006) explains that Pharmaceutical firms supported the NPE position because the injunctive relief differentially affects different industries ability to innovate, and Casagrande (2006) suggests that true problem at issue was business method patents, and the Supreme Court’s decision missed the mark. Other judicial reform papers include Chan and Fawcett (2005), who considers the 2005 Patent Reform Act; Reitzig et al. (2006) who argues that courts make unrealistic trade-offs in cases involving NPEs (and should be stricter); and Ferrill (2004) who suggests the creation of Patent Investment Trusts. On whether the property rule or the liability rule is appropriate, and whether the liability rule can be contracted around, Sichelman (2011) and Lemley (2011) provide seminal comments. Finally, Hricik (2010) who considers the ethics of representing each side (and suggests the ethical quandary is in representing the infringer, not the NPE).