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In advanced industrial economies where, increasingly, intellectual assets are the principal source of value, productivity, and growth, strong intellectual property rights (IPRs)—conferred by patents, copyrights, and penalties for misappropriation of trade secrets—are an important inducement to invention and investment. For this reason, the extension and strengthening of IPRs in the United States and elsewhere in the past twenty-five years were appropriate and probably necessary. It may be that in some respects those processes should proceed further. On the other hand, there is growing friction over the assertion and exercise of some IPRs, particular patents, and claims that in some circumstances they may be discouraging research, its communication, and use. The question arises whether in some respects the strengthening and extension have proceeded too far. It is well known that the use of, reliance upon, and effects of patent protections vary across industries and technologies, but until recently there has been remarkably little empirical research documenting these differences. Fortunately, this is beginning to change, and the effects of some of the policy changes in the 1980s and 1990s are beginning to be investigated. Some evidence suggests that the effort to strengthen patent rights has indeed increased their importance and may have contributed to the growth of industrial R&D funding. On the other hand, recent survey evidence indicates that U.S. manufacturing firms in most industries rely more heavily on trade secrecy, lead time, and other technological protections to recoup their R&D investments than they do on legal mechanisms such as patents. This thesis examines the effects that a stronger, broader patent regime is having on today's industries. The main issues that emerge are those of patent quality and scope, as caused by problems with patent administration and litigation. Various solutions to these problems are then investigated, and recommendations made for future reform.

The airline industry has been the subject of numerous studies both before and after deregulation. None of these, however have explicitly modelled the cost savings due to deregulation. This thesis develops a number of testable hypotheses about technological and managerial choice as they pertain to regulatory reform. The results of the tests show that the production technology the airlines developed post-deregulation is not unambiguously more efficient than the pre-deregulatoin technology. The unregulated output and network structure, however, appear to be more efficient than those utilized during regulation. A model is developed to decompose the change in cost due to deregulation. It is found that approximately 5% of the reduction in cost is the result of the new technology while 95% of the savings stems from the new output and network structures.

Convergence has blurred the artificial limits that traditionally existed between separated sectors and services. In particular, technological convergence united cable and telephone networks as convenient platforms for the provision of numerous new telecommunications services. The advent of the Internet and the development of other services started a race for the acquisition of broadband transmission that has, in part, prompted a number of corporate mergers between the major telephone, cable, and Internet service providers. / This thesis analyzes the legal implications of the convergence of cable operators and telephone carriers in the United States of America (U.S.). The analysis was conducted in light of the 1996 Telecommunications Act's provisions, the Federal Communications Commission's reports and orders, and under the critical approaches of the cable and telephone industries. This thesis presents recommendations addressed to promote an equal regulatory treatment for all telecommunications competitors in the U.S.

The following thesis describes and analyzes the development of the U.S. slot allocation system from 1968 until today, in order to draw relevant conclusions for a new European Slot Regulation. The European Commission is currently drafting a new Slot Regulation purporting to introduce market mechanisms. A similar approach was espoused in the United States from 1986 onward, but was ultimately supplanted by overriding legislation in 2000. The analysis of the U.S. slot allocation system reveals the reasons underlying its abolition and queries whether this experience can be successfully transposed in Europe. The thesis commences by providing general information on the definition of slots, slot allocation, and airport capacity. A brief review of the European Commission's current consultation process on the implementation of market mechanisms for slot allocation follows. The main part of the thesis discusses the U.S. High Density Rule and the Rules for the Allocation and Transfer of High Density Airport Slots in historical order. Some criticisms frequently voiced assert that the Rules artificially limited access to airports, constituted barriers to market entry, restricted airline competition, generated higher fares, and yielded adverse effects on smaller communities which, in turn, lost access to key markets. Through a favorable assessment of the Rules, the thesis analyses these concerns and concludes that the suppression of the Rules was rather prompted by local political motivations than by other rationalities. However, experiences drawn from the U.S. Rules demonstrate that a future European secondary market for slots, if implemented under a grand fathering system, will likely have a positive impact on the efficiency of airport capacity, but not on access to the market and competition.

The purpose of this paper was to compile a nationwide survey by state, on legislation designed to protect access to solar energy. Brief summaries of the information received are included. Land use planning techniques and tools such as zoning and subdivision regulations, as well as special solar zones and planned unit developments have been discussed as they relate to protection of solar access and solar energy use. This paper has distinguished between two types of solar energy systems, active and passive, and associated problems with each.Primary concerns for the users of solar energy systems have been the availability of solar energy and its access to the collector's surface. Solar energy is environmentally safe, however, access to solar energy can be a limiting factor to its use. Solar access protection methods vary with location. The differences in needs between rural and urban areas have been discussed.Increasing solar technologies indicate the need for communities to regulate solar access through innovative legislation. This paper with brief introductions to solar energy access protection techniques, and the state-by-state survey was prepared so as to provide the reader with a basic understanding of solar access protection and act as a guide to access protection methods. / Department of Urban Planning

This thesis analyses the extraterritorial dimension of patent systems in light of recent judicial trends, ending with the United States Supreme Court's landmark 2007 ruling in AT&T v. Microsoft. The discussion examines (i) the economic interest of nations in issuing and maintaining patent rights; (ii) the legal arguments against a unilateral extraterritorial extension of domestic patents, leading to the legal presumption against extraterritorial extension; (iii) the evolution of this doctrine in United States legislation and jurisprudence and forays against it, especially in recent decades; and (iv) the impact of globalization and of the nature of patentable information in the digital age on the issue of the extraterritorial extension of patent rights. The general conclusions are that, in the modern age, patent rights need to be extended beyond the domestic jurisdiction, and that the appropriate manner for nations to achieve this extension is not unilaterally but through bilateral and multilateral treaties.