The recent New York Times article on the high-tech industry argues that software patents and the current “smart phone war” are a disaster for innovation, and it backs this with quotes and cites from a horde of academics and judges, like Judge Richard Posner, that software patents are causing “chaos.”

Read the full piece here.

Some of the most significant transactions singled out recently for intensive federal review involve the communications industry. These include the merger of Comcast and NBCUniversal, the failed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, a multi-billion purchase of spectrum by Verizon from a consortium of cable companies and, just recently, the announced acquisition by T-Mobile USA of rival MetroPCS and Softbank’s offer for Sprint.

Read the full piece here.

The New York Times set hearts aflutter in the IP world yesterday with its hit piece on patents in the high-tech industry– I’m shocked, shocked to find the New York Times publishing biased articles on hot topics in politics and law — but Bloomberg also published an important article yesterday on the smart phone war, software patents and other topics raised by today’s so-called patent litigation crisis: Apple Phone Patent War Like Sewing Machine Minus Violence.

Read the full piece here. 

This coming Friday (Oct. 12), the Center for Business Law and Regulation at Case Western Law School will host what promises to be a terrific symposium on executive compensation.  Presenters include TOTM alumnus Todd Henderson (Chicago Law), Jill Fisch (Penn Law), Jesse Fried (Harvard Law), David Walker (Boston U Law), David Larcker (Stanford Business), Stephen L. Brown (TIAA-CREF), Paul Hodgson (GMI Ratings), William Mulligan (Primus Venture Partners).

Here’s a description of the symposium:

Executive compensation has become the most contentious issue in corporate governance. Many claim that poorly designed executive compensation helped cause the recent financial collapse, but critics disagree widely about what was wrong with those designs. Management and investors are wrestling over their roles in structuring executive compensation through say-on-pay and over the role of proxy advisory services. The symposium brings together prominent practicing attorneys, institutional investors, proxy advisors, and academics to discuss the current issues and where we are, or should be, headed.

If you’re in Cleveland and able to make it to the symposium (for which 4.5 hours of CLE is available), do it.  Otherwise, check out the webcast.

Filed under: announcements, executive compensation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KdLW4T5iCY

At today’s Open Commission Meeting, the FCC is set to consider two apparently forthcoming Notices of Proposed Rulemaking that will shape the mobile broadband sector for years to come.  It’s not hyperbole to say that the FCC’s approach to the two issues at hand — the design of spectrum auctions and the definition of the FCC’s spectrum screen — can make or break wireless broadband in this country.  The FCC stands at a crossroads with respect to its role in this future, and it’s not clear that it will choose wisely.

Read the full piece here.

I will be speaking at a lunch debate in DC hosted by TechFreedom on Friday, September 28, 2012, to discuss the FTC’s antitrust investigation of Google. Details below.

TechFreedom will host a livestreamed, parliamentary-style lunch debate on Friday September 28, 2012, to discuss the FTC’s antitrust investigation of Google.   As the company has evolved, expanding outward from its core search engine product, it has come into competition with a range of other firms and established business models. This has, in turn, caused antitrust regulators to investigate Google’s conduct, essentially questioning whether the company’s success obligates it to treat competitors neutrally. James Cooper, Director of Research and Policy for the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University School of Law, will moderate a panel of four distinguished commenters to discuss the question, “Should the FTC Sue Google Over Search?”  

Arguing “Yes” will be:

• Eric Clemons
  • Professor of Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of “The Need to Focus on the Correct Issues in Google, Power and Antitrust”
• Allen Grunes
  • Attorney at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and author of “Is There a Basis in Antitrust Law for Requiring ‘Neutral’ Search Results?“

Arguing “No” will be:

• Glenn Manishin
  • Partner at Troutman Sanders and author of “No Need for Antitrust Prosecution of Google“
• Geoffrey Manne
  • Lecturer in Law at Lewis & Clark Law School, Executive Director of the International Center for Law & Economics and author of “If Search Neutrality Is the Answer, What’s the Question?“

When:
Friday, September 28, 2012
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Where:
The Monocle Restaurant
107 D Street Northeast
Washington, DC 20002

RSVP here. The event will be livestreamed here and you can follow the conversation on Twitter at #GoogleFTC.

For those viewing by livestream, we will watch for questions posted to Twitter at the #GoogleFTC hashtag and endeavor, as possible, to incorporate them into the debate.

Questions?
Email [email protected]

Filed under: announcements, antitrust, google Tagged: Allen Grunes, Eric Clemons, Federal Trade Commission, ftc, FTC Act, Glenn Manishin, google, James Cooper, search, search neutrality, Section 2, section 5, Sherman Act, techfreedom

Disputes over intellectual property rights permeate our culture. The music and movie industries have brought thousands of copyright infringement lawsuits against users of peer-to-peer systems like BitTorrent. YouTube videos and Facebook postings are regularly taken down because they contain infringing content. Earlier this year, proposed copyright legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act, was effectively killed by a grassroots uprising on the Internet. After the Internet Blackout Day on Jan. 18, SOPA became the new four-letter word.

Read the full piece here.

My paper with Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg (D.C. Circuit; NYU Law), Behavioral Law & Economics: Its Origins, Fatal Flaws, and Implications for Liberty, is posted to SSRN and now published in the Northwestern Law Review.

Here is the abstract:

Behavioral economics combines economics and psychology to produce a body of evidence that individual choice behavior departs from that predicted by neoclassical economics in a number of decision-making situations. Emerging close on the heels of behavioral economics over the past thirty years has been the “behavioral law and economics” movement and its philosophical foundation — so-called “libertarian paternalism.” Even the least paternalistic version of behavioral law and economics makes two central claims about government regulation of seemingly irrational behavior: (1) the behavioral regulatory approach, by manipulating the way in which choices are framed for consumers, will increase welfare as measured by each individual’s own preferences and (2) a central planner can and will implement the behavioral law and economics policy program in a manner that respects liberty and does not limit the choices available to individuals. This Article draws attention to the second and less scrutinized of the behaviorists’ claims, viz., that behavioral law and economics poses no significant threat to liberty and individual autonomy. The behaviorists’ libertarian claims fail on their own terms. So long as behavioral law and economics continues to ignore the value to economic welfare and individual liberty of leaving individuals the freedom to choose and hence to err in making important decisions, “libertarian paternalism” will not only fail to fulfill its promise of increasing welfare while doing no harm to liberty, it will pose a significant risk of reducing both.

Download here.

 

Filed under: behavioral economics, behavioral economics, consumer financial protection bureau, consumer protection, economics, free to choose, Hayek, law and economics