Patents and Antitrust: Application to Adjacent Markets

We examine the intersection of patents and antitrust where a patent holder uses the monopoly power it possesses in the market for a patented product to exclude competitors in an adjacent market and attempt to monopolize or monopolize the adjacent market. The present scheme for awarding patents cannot judge when the issuance of a patent will lead to the appropriate balance between innovation and economic efficiency. Where a patent holder’s invention uses an interface with adjacent products, the patent holder may be tempted to extend its patent monopoly into adjacent markets that depend upon the interface with the patented invention. Economic theory suggests that it is inappropriate to immunize a patent holder from antitrust liability when it attempts to extend its patent monopoly into adjacent markets because it could decrease consumer surplus. Courts have expressed their reluctance to scrutinize a patent holder’s innovations and design changes because of the potential benefits of the innovations and their reluctance to second-guess the marketplace. However, applying traditional antitrust principles, courts have found that monopolists could be liable for unlawfully extending their monopoly positions into adjacent markets in the areas of computer peripherals and software applications; aftermarkets for replacement parts, service and maintenance of durable goods; design changes to medical devices; and changes in drug formulas. While the patent laws provide a spur to innovation by granting limited monopoly rights, the antitrust laws curb the excessive reach of these monopoly rights by acting as a check on excessive expansion of the scope of the patent grant. Courts are the only participants in the legal process that have the competence to ensure that patents do not cause economic stagnation and harm by permitting a patent holder to extend its monopoly into an adjacent market. Consequently, courts should be willing to apply antitrust principles to cases involving the monopolization of interfaces through design changes

Power-Law Distributions in a Two-sided Market and Net Neutrality

"Net neutrality" often refers to the policy dictating that an Internet service provider (ISP) cannot charge content providers (CPs) for delivering their content to consumers. Many past quantitative models designed to determine whether net neutrality is a good idea have been rather equivocal in their conclusions. Here we propose a very simple two-sided market model, in which the types of the consumers and the CPs are {\em power-law distributed} --- a kind of distribution known to often arise precisely in connection with Internet-related phenomena. We derive mostly analytical, closed-form results for several regimes: (a) Net neutrality, (b) social optimum, (c) maximum revenue by the ISP, or (d) maximum ISP revenue under quality differentiation. One unexpected conclusion is that (a) and (b) will differ significantly, unless average CP productivity is very high

Crafting a Systematic Literature Review on Open-Source Platforms

This working paper unveils the crafting of a systematic literature review on open-source platforms. The high-competitive mobile devices market, where several players such as Apple, Google, Nokia and Microsoft run a platforms- war with constant shifts in their technological strategies, is gaining increasing attention from scholars. It matters, then, to review previous literature on past platforms-wars, such as the ones from the PC and game-console industries, and assess its implications to the current mobile devices platforms-war. The paper starts by justifying the purpose and rationale behind this literature review on open-source platforms. The concepts of open-source software and computer-based platforms were then discussed both individually and in unison, in order to clarify the core-concept of 'open-source platform' that guides this literature review. The detailed design of the employed methodological strategy is then presented as the central part of this paper. The paper concludes with preliminary findings organizing previous literature on open-source platforms for the purpose of guiding future research in this area.Comment: As presented in 10th IFIP WG 2.13 International Conference on Open Source Systems, OSS 2014, San Jos\'e, Costa Rica, May 6-9, 201

Integrating TAM with EEG Frontal Asymmetry

Recent evolution in the Information Systems (IS) community has involved neuroscience tools and methods in order to develop new theories concerning Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and further understand IS acceptance models. Thus, the field of NeuroIS has emerged. Moreover, NeuroIS researchers have proposed encephalograph (EEG) as valuable usability metric. Particularly, EEG frontal asymmetry has been related to approach/withdraw behaviour and positive/negative affect concerning users’ perceptions. Furthermore, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been established as the most notable model regarding IS acceptance. This study is a first attempt to integrate EEG frontal asymmetry with TAM in order to associate brain activation with the two most important variables of TAM: Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use. Specifically, thirty one undergraduate students were chosen to use a Computer-Based Assessment (while being connected to the EEG) in the context of an introductory informatics course. Results indicate a direct positive association of frontal asymmetry on the aforementioned variables. These findings suggest that frontal asymmetry could be useful for validating and developing Information Technology (IT) theories, as well as designing and explaining the acceptance and adoption of new IS systems or products

Patents and Antitrust: Application to Adjacent Markets

We examine the intersection of patents and antitrust where a patent holder uses the monopoly power it possesses in the market for a patented product to exclude competitors in an adjacent market and attempt to monopolize or monopolize the adjacent market. The present scheme for awarding patents cannot judge when the issuance of a patent will lead to the appropriate balance between innovation and economic efficiency. Where a patent holder's invention uses an interface with adjacent products, the patent holder may be tempted to extend its patent monopoly into adjacent markets that depend upon the interface with the patented invention. Economic theory suggests that it is inappropriate to immunize a patent holder from antitrust liability when it attempts to extend its patent monopoly into adjacent markets because it could decrease consumer surplus. Courts have expressed their reluctance to scrutinize a patent holder's innovations and design changes because of the potential benefits of the innovations and their reluctance to second-guess the marketplace. However, applying traditional antitrust principles, courts have found that monopolists could be liable for unlawfully extending their monopoly positions into adjacent markets in the areas of computer peripherals and software applications; aftermarkets for replacement parts, service and maintenance of durable goods; design changes to medical devices; and changes in drug formulas. While the patent laws provide a spur to innovation by granting limited monopoly rights, the antitrust laws curb the excessive reach of these monopoly rights by acting as a check on excessive expansion of the scope of the patent grant. Courts are the only participants in the legal process that have the competence to ensure that patents do not cause economic stagnation and harm by permitting a patent holder to extend its monopoly into an adjacent market. Consequently, courts should be willing to apply antitrust principles to cases involving the monopolization of interfaces through design changes

Ipsographing the Dubject; or, The Contradictions of Twitter

Precise control of self-renewal and differentiation of progenitor cells into the cranial neural crest (CNC) pool ensures proper head development, guided by signaling pathways such as BMPs, FGFs, Shh and Notch. Here, we show that murine Sox2 plays an essential role in controlling progenitor cell behavior during craniofacial development. A "Conditional by Inversion" Sox2 allele (Sox2(COIN) ) has been employed to generate an epiblast ablation of Sox2 function (Sox2(EpINV) ). Sox2 (EpINV/+(H)) haploinsufficient and conditional (Sox2(EpINV/mosaic) ) mutant embryos proceed beyond gastrulation and die around E11. These mutant embryos exhibit severe anterior malformations, with hydrocephaly and frontonasal truncations, which could be attributed to the deregulation of CNC progenitor cells during their epithelial to mesenchymal transition. This irregularity results in an exacerbated and aberrant migration of Sox10(+) NCC in the branchial arches and frontonasal process of the Sox2 mutant embryos. These results suggest a novel role for Sox2 as a regulator of the epithelial to mesenchymal transitions (EMT) that are important for the cell flow in the developing head

Measuring instant emotions based on facial expression during computer-based assessment

Abstract Emotions are very important during learning and assessment procedures. However, measuring emotions is a very demanding task. Several tools have been developed and used for this purpose. In this paper, the efficiency of the FaceReader during a computer-based assessment (CBA) was evaluated. Instant measurements of the FaceReader were compared with the researchers' estimations regarding students' emotions. The observations took place in a properly designed room in real time. Statistical analysis showed that there are some differences between FaceReader's and researchers' estimations regarding Disgusted and Angry emotions. Results showed that FaceReader is capable of measuring emotions with an efficacy of over 87% during a CBA and that it could be successfully integrated into a computer-aided learning system for the purpose of emotion recognition. Moreover, this study provides useful results for the emotional states of students during CBA and learning procedures. This is actually the first time that student's instant emotions were measured during a CBA, based on their facial expressions. Results showed that most of the time students were experiencing Neutral, Angry, and Sad emotions. Furthermore, gender analysis highlights differences between genders' instant emotions