Purposive Hopes for Better IP

13 Pages Posted: 4 Jun 2013 Last revised: 4 Jun 2013

See all articles by John M. Golden

John M. Golden

University of Texas at Austin - School of Law

Date Written: May 1, 2013

Abstract

In Creation Without Restraint, Christina Bohannan and Herbert Hovenkamp add to the growing body of books on what academics have commonly come to call a “crisis” — namely, the current state of United States’ intellectual property (IP) laws and their interaction with policies of promoting both innovation and free-market competition. Bohannan and Hovenkamp suggest a variety of ways in which our modern patent, copyright, and antitrust laws might be improved to better promote the creation and distribution of new matter. Drawing on the example of U.S. antitrust law, they argue that private plaintiffs seeking to enforce IP rights should have to show “IP injury” — i.e., “likely interfere[nce] with IP holders’ decisions to create or distribute their works.” In this and other proposals, Bohannan and Hovenkamp might not have hit on a cure-all. Further, in the wake of the “new textualism,” their contentions might benefit from more extended and forceful argument for the purposive approach to statutory and constitutional interpretation that they embrace. At the very least, however, Bohannan and Hovenkamp’s discussion, analysis, and prescriptions add rich perspective to debates about how to manage what Robert Merges has characterized as the “sprawling, chaotic megacit[y]” of IP law.

Suggested Citation

Golden, John M., Purposive Hopes for Better IP (May 1, 2013). 91 Texas Law Rev. 1413-1424 (2013), U of Texas Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 451, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2273787

John M. Golden (Contact Author)

University of Texas at Austin - School of Law ( email )

School of Law
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Austin, TX 78705
United States
(512) 232-1469 (Phone)

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