Economics of Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights
The first meeting would introduce IP laws in the EU and some of the main differences with the US equivalents. The second meeting would briefly cover the economic literature that justifies the existence of IP laws and explain their design (why does a patent last for 20, generally, years? What information can or cannot be granted trade secrets protection?). Finally, in the final meeting, I would discuss some problems linked to IP protection laws (patent thickets – i.e., an overlapping set of patent rights – innovation kill zone, etc.) and briefly present some well-known IP disputes (Moderna vs Pfizer/Biontech, Facebook & Google vs news publisher, etc.).