Article Title
Abstract
The University of Michigan Law School hosted a two-day conference entitled "Patents and Diversity in Innovation." The morning of the first day featured a panel devoted to "industry differences." This panel took up the task of dealing with the following questions: How has diversification of innovation and the expansion of patentable subject matter affected patent practice? How do markets for technology vary from sector to sector? And how do they reflect or influence patent practice? To what extent are business practices and competitive markets shaped by the nature of the technology, product, or service?[...] A conference titled "Patents and Diversity" did not need to be premised on an unproven contention that consequential industry differences do exist. It could have set out to question the existence and significance of industry differences, and, had they been found, it could have focused on their etiology.[...] This Article offers the analysis on "patents and diversity" that might have been-had the conference challenged, rather than swallowed, its premise.
Recommended Citation
Robert A. Armitage,
The Myth of Inherent and Inevitable Industry Differences: Diversity as Artifact in the Quest for Patent Reforms,
13
Mich. Telecomm. & Tech. L. Rev.
401
(2007).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mttlr/vol13/iss2/3