Publications

01 Jun 2008
News

“Where can we find such a person?”

through a host of issues including dealing effectively with all the pieces of the Harvard puzzle, from the president to the provost to the people who run the hospitals,” Melton noted. “He or she would have to know how to tackle the difficult View Details

Keywords: stem cell; Management

28 Feb 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Patent Trolls and Small-Business Employment

Keywords: by Ian Appel, Joan Farre-Mensa, and Elena Simintzi

Article

"Troll" Check? A Proposal for Administrative Review of Patent Litigation

By: Lauren Cohen, John Golden, Umit Gurun and Scott Duke Kominers

The patent system is commonly justified as a way to promote social welfare and, more specifically, technological progress. For years, however, there has been concern that patent litigation is undermining, rather than furthering, these goals. Particularly in the United... View Details

Keywords: Patent Trolls; Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation

December 2016
Case

Muñoz Group Faces Brexit

By: Forest Reinhardt and Annelena Lobb

In 2016, Muñoz Group, a multifaceted agribusiness company that developed, produced, packed, imported, and exported citrus, flowers, grapes, juice, and ice cream, faced an unexpected new challenge in the British public’s vote for the United Kingdom to exit the European... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Globalization; Intellectual Property; Government and Politics; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe

2000
Chapter

Strategic Alliances and Technology Licensing in Biotechnology

By: Josh Lerner

Keywords: Alliances; Corporate Strategy; Intellectual Property; Biotechnology Industry

May 2004
Article

Was Electricity a General Purpose Technology: Evidence from Historical Patent Citations

By: Tom Nicholas and Petra Moser

Keywords: Energy; Information Technology; Information; Patents

December 2016
Article

The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales, Revisited

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf

Even as we approach the twentieth anniversary of widespread file sharing, its impact on the sale of copyrighted material remains in dispute. We contributed to this debate with an early study, “The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis,” that was... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Copyright; Sales; Retail Industry; Music Industry

September 2002 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Silhouette v. Hartlauer

Silhouette, an Austrian eyeglass frame manufacturer, sued Hartlauer, an Austrian retail discounter, for reselling Silhouette frames within the European Union (EU) that Hartlauer had purchased outside the EU. Does the EU follow the principle of exhaustion of trademarks? View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Trademarks; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; European Union

27 May 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Thinking About Global

and run major infrastructure projects such as power and water. But a set of new property protections has done little to manage the risk in many of these politically unstable environments. Professor Louis T.... View Details

June 2015
Article

Standard-Essential Patents

By: Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

A major policy issue in standard setting is that patents that are ex-ante not that important may, by being included into the standard, become standard-essential patents (SEPs). In an attempt to curb the monopoly power that they create, most standard-setting... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Policy; Standards

January 2002
Article

Putting Patents in Context: Exploring Knowledge Transfer from MIT

By: Ajay Agrawal and Rebecca M. Henderson

Keywords: Patents; Knowledge Sharing

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Three Steps for Crisis Prevention

industry practices, which the press juxtaposed against the grim realities of AIDS in southern Africa. In response, governmental and nongovernmental organizations formed a coalition that ultimately won big public health exemptions on international View Details

Keywords: by Michael D. Watkins & Max H. Bazerman

Larissa Bifano

Larissa S. Bifano concentrates on patent and other intellectual property strategy, counseling, prosecution, diligence, and litigation in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and federal courts. She... View Details

January 2019 (Revised May 2019)
Case

When Trolls Attack: Carbonite vs. Oasis Research

By: Lauren H. Cohen, Umit G. Gurun, Scott Duke Kominers and Sarah Mehta

This case, set in October 2017, follows Danielle Sheer, general counsel for Carbonite, as she defends the company against claims of patent infringement. It provides a broad overview of the U.S. patent system and explores the impact that non-practicing entities... View Details

Keywords: Patent Infringement Litigation; Non-practicing Entities; Patent Trolls; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Patents; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Legal Liability; Computer Industry; Technology Industry; Boston

April 2017
Case

The Future of Patent Examination at the USPTO

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Sarah Mehta

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal government agency responsible for evaluating and granting patents and trademarks. In 2015, the USPTO employed approximately 8,000 patent examiners who granted nearly 300,000 patents to inventors. As of April... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Telework; Collaborating With Unions; Human Resources; Recruitment; Retention; Intellectual Property; Copyright; Patents; Trademarks; Knowledge Sharing; Technology Adoption; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Productivity; Performance Improvement; District of Columbia