Fragile Equilibria

Abstract:     
This is a comment on Kal Raustiala & Christopher Sprigman, The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design, 92 Va. L. Rev. 1687 (2006). Raustiala and Sprigman argue that innovation in fashion occurs in low intellectual property equilibrium. In his comment on this piece, Randy Picker disputes that conclusion. In my comment, I start from the assumption that Raustiala and Sprigman are right and then ask whether the conditions that set this equilibrium exist for other innovation communities. Finding that they do, I then examine the durability of these equilibria and suggest factors that contribute to their breakdown.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 8

Keywords: intellectual property, innovation, fashion

JEL Classification: A10, K19, K39, L69, O31, O34

Accepted Paper Series