We are delighted to publish your forthcoming article in the Washington University Law Review. Thank you for sharing this exciting news, and we look forward to bringing your work to our readers soon.
Honored and delighted to publish with you & your wonderful editorial team.
"Industrial Patent Law" is now live on @ssrn.bsky.social :
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
This is still a draft -- comments welcome!
The piece draws on extensive archival work behind my book, a legal history of early communications satellites--see my prior publications @historians.org's Perspectives on History (www.historians.org/news-publica...) & in Cosmic Fragments (UPittsburgh Press) (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....).
I also reflect on the Trump Administration's recent threats to march in on university patents.
And I provide scholars a catalogue of the Patent Office files behind the administrative disputes over the patents behind the first generation of communications satellites.
(2) the use of such powers as a form of public utilities regulation, particularly for communications satellites--which holds unique implications today for SpaceX, on whose rockets and satellites the U.S. and the world increasingly depend.
The essay shows industry lobbying led to the demise of this regime. I suggest ways to revitalize it, through (1) the historical use of march-in-like powers to control price for anti-monopoly purposes (counter to agency rejections of march-in on that basis under Bayh-Dole); and
While scholars theorize counterfactual "anticommons" problems, the essay uncovers historical archives to provide a rare exploration of the period when government control of patents was the norm, supporting U.S. commercialization, innovation, & public interest in the Space Age.
My piece, "Industrial Patent Law," is forthcoming @washulawreview.bsky.social!
A pre-history of march-in rights, using the formative disputes over patents & government contracts behind one of the consequential technologies of the Cold War -- the communications satellite.
Always fun when historical work comes to matter for the present. I'll draw from my forthcoming article, Before Invention, at Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal. Draft on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Excited to speak about the implications of my historical work for AI in the patent system -- today at the Boston IP Law Association Symposium, with @zvirosen.bsky.social & Taylor Davis. & many thanks to Stephen Chow for the invite.
bipla.org/events/Event...
Thank you for all of your support and fantastic revisions!
I am also deeply grateful to the archivists at UNLV Libraries Special Collections & Archives, especially Su Kim Chung, & NARA-Kansas City, in particular the late Bob Beebe; the Hughes story would not have been possible without them.
Many thanks to @lmansley.bsky.social @historians.org for terrific editing; Mike Banerjee & Ming-hsi Chu for feedback; & my diss committee, w/o which the project wouldn't have *lifted off* (ha): Angela Creager, @legalhis.bsky.social, Chris Beauchamp, @historyasif.bsky.social, Natasha Wheatley.
My latest, for #AHAPerspectives, as the historic #ArtemisII returns home today. 🚀🛰️
Some reflections - personal & scholarly - on law, tech, & history, through a précis of the book in progress.
historians.org/perspectives...
My latest, at #AHAPerspectives.
On the history & politics of the world picture, see my article "Our Window on the World" at @questquarterly.bsky.social .
ssrn.com/abstract=635...
As promised, the draft article on conception (including AI) is now up on SSRN
bsky.app/profile/did:...
No one has traced the contours of the doctrinal development at this level before. I hope it will be a useful contribution for scholars & practitioners.
Still making revisions -- comments welcome! Draft available on SSRN:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
My article, "Before Invention," is forthcoming at Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal!
The first comprehensive historical account of one of patent law's foundational doctrines, conception. And its import for our modern patent system, including AI.
If you’re in Boston, I’m speaking on AI, patent law, and the history of conception at the Boston IP Law Association annual symposium in a few weeks!
bipla.org/events/Event...
This is of course a bigger issue for AI in IP -- especially patent law, where numerous doctrines (e.g., conception, enablement, non-obviousness) rely on the meaning of "routine skill." Robot originally meant worker, & early patent law thought of workers as "machines."
I argue this hasn't been & shouldn't be the only way to understand invention bc (put broadly) it rewards general ideas over details figured out thru the actual effort of making something work. Sci/tech historians recognize this mentalism as erasing the "invisible technician."
[Reposting from X] The justification for this AI-assisted law review article is Claude merely "worked to implement its principal’s vision." There's a similar approach in patent law's doctrine of conception-what I critique as a "mentalist" theory of invention in a forthcoming article (posting soon).
I had an absolutely fantastic time at the Works-in-Progress IP Colloquium @bulaw.bsky.social last weekend. Was thrilled by the energetic responses to my Article, "Before Invention," & the work of my co-panelists @jordigoodman.bsky.social, @charlesduan.bsky.social, & @emptydoors.bsky.social .
We are sad to miss Gerardo Con Diaz, who unfortunately can’t make it.
Excited for this roundtable I coorganized w Mary Mitchell at the American Society for Legal History #ASLH2025 today. Wanted to do this for years. Many cool ideas to discuss at cutting edges of many fields, w a stellar crew— @karawswanson.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy, George Aumoithe, Julia Lewandoski.
The 3-year appt will allow me the privilege to think & write. I'll work on new scholarship on patents, property, space law, public-private partnerships, U.S. foreign relations, the histories of law & science -- & my 1st academic book, on law & communications satellites at the dawn of the Space Age.
Exciting life update -- I've been appointed as a Prize Fellow
@harvard.edu !
histecon.fas.harvard.edu/ehppf/Haris_...