The Center for Research on Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CRIE) at the School of Law will host a conference on “The Economics and Law of Innovation” April 2 and 3 in Anheuser-Busch Hall. The conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. each day, with the keynote presentation at 12:20 p.m. Thursday, April 2.
The goal of the conference is to stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue and scholarship on innovation.
The conference is organized and co-chaired by law professors Gerrit De Geest, J.D., Ph.D., and Charles McManis, J.D., the Thomas and Karole Green Professor of Law, whose research focuses on law and economics and intellectual property, respectively.
“This conference is the third in a series sponsored by CRIE and seeks to promote research on the intersection of law and innovation,” said McManis, director of CRIE. “The previous two conferences examined commercialization of innovation and open-source models of innovation. The inspiration for this was provided by the recent publication of ‘Against Intellectual Monopoly,’ a provocative book that mounts a spirited challenge to the economic premises underlying intellectual property law.”
As part of the conference, leading scholars in economics and the law will examine and discuss “Against Intellectual Monopoly” by Michele Boldrin, Ph.D., the Joseph Gibson Hoyt Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences and chair of the economics department, and David Levine, Ph.D., the John H. Biggs Distinguished Professor of Economics in Arts & Sciences.
In their book, Boldrin and Levine propose a drastic reform of the patent system. They suggest that intellectual property law should be restored to match the intent of the U.S. Constitution which states: Congress may “promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writing and discoveries.” More information about the book is available at news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/13656.html.
The conference keynote speaker, Mark A. Lemley, J.D., the William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, will present “A Cautious Defense of Intellectual Oligopoly with Fringe Competition.”
Widely recognized as a preeminent scholar of intellectual property law, Lemley is an accomplished litigator — having tried cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court and federal circuit courts — as well as a prolific writer with more than 90 published articles and six books. His contributions to legal scholarship focus on how the economics and technology of the Internet affect patent law, copyright law and trademark law.
This event is free and open to the public; registration, however, is required.
For more information or to pre-register, visit law.wustl.edu/CRIE/conferences.
CRIE, initially funded by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation, will soon be renamed the Center on Law, Innovation & Economic Growth.