Boston University Law School hosts Notice and Notice Failure in Intellectual Property Law September 24-25, 2015.
In their landmark book, Patent Failure, James Bessen and Michael Meurer demonstrated that “notice failure” lies at the heart of the current crisis in patent law. Without sufficient and timely notice of the existence and scope of patent entitlements, innovators face risk and uncertainty which can hobble investment, transactions, and economic growth. Notice issues, moreover, are not limited to patent law: problems with notice – from the opaque nature of complex statutes to the fuzzy boundaries of many intellectual property doctrines – can lead to public frustration, litigation, inefficiencies, and chilling effects. This conference explores some of the challenges associated with notice and notice failure in patent, copyright, design patent, publicity, trade secret, and trademark law.
