John Allison
Professor, Department of Business, Government and Society | The University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business
Austin, TX, UNITED STATES
A leading researcher of patents, patent systems, and patent litigation
Areas of Expertise (8)
Intellectual Property Rights
Patent Law
Patent Systems
Patent Litigation
Trade Secrets
Copyright Law
Trademark Law
Internet Regulation
Biography
John Allison is John R. Mary and Ralph Spence Centennial Professor of Business Administration in the Department of Business, Government, and Society. His primary research interests include the empirical study of patents, patent systems, and patent litigation. His primary teaching interests include patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks.
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Education (2)
Baylor University School of Law: J.D., Law
Texas A&M University: B.A., Accounting
Media Appearances (2)
East Texas Loses Lure For Patent-Infringement Lawsuits
KUT online
2017-06-02
"You know, unless they were formed in Texas, not very many corporations are incorporated in Texas. And actually, most Texas corporations are incorporated in Delaware," said John Allison, a business professor at the University of Texas.
77 former government officials and professors remind Assistant AG Delrahim of long-standing U.S. policy on standard-essential patents
Foss Patents online
2018-05-18
Given the importance of this subject, I'll now republish an open letter that 77 former government officials and professors (of law, economics, and business) have sent Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim in order to remind him of long-standing and consistent U.S. policies on standard-essential patents (SEP) under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Articles (13)
How Often Do Non-Practicing Entities Win Infringement Cases?
Berkeley Technology Law Journal
2017-01-01
"Patent trolls" play a disputed role in our modern patent system. This paper investigates who counts as a troll, and whether non-practicing entities, which do not make and sell products or services, are inherently problematic, or, like some practicing entities, sometimes simply assert weak patents.
How Courts Adjudicate Patent Definiteness and Disclosure
Duke Law Journal
2016-01-01
Section 112 of the Patent Act requires patentees to clearly explain what their invention is (= claim definiteness), as well as how to make and use it (= disclosure). To see how Section 112 is applied in practice, we created a dataset of 1144 court decisions from 1982 to 2012... and find statistically significant disparities in Section 112 outcomes for different technologies and industries, as well as a host of other variables.
Our Divided Patent System
University of Chicago Law Review
2015-06-01
We evaluate all substantive decisions rendered by any court in every patent case filed in the years 2008 and 2009-decisions made between 2009 and 2013. ...We find dramatic differences in the outcomes of patent litigation by both technology and industry.
Understanding the Realities of Modern Patent Litigation
Texas Law Review
2014-06-01
We evaluate all substantive decisions rendered by any court in every patent case filed in 2008 and 2009 — decisions made between 2009 and 2013. We consider not just patent validity but also infringement and unenforceability. The result is a comprehensive picture of the outcomes of modern patent litigation, one that confirms conventional wisdom in some respects but upends it in others. In particular, we find a surprising amount of continuity in the basic outcomes of patent lawsuits over the past twenty years, despite rather dramatic changes in who brought patent suits during that time.
Patent Litigation and the Internet
Stanford Technology Law Review
2012-01-01
Among 17 major findings are: (1) Internet patents and their two subtypes were litigated at a far higher rate than other (non-Internet patents, or NIPs). (2) Within the category of Internet patents, those on business models were litigated at a significantly higher rate than those on business techniques. This paper was selected as one of the best articles on Intellectual Property Law of 2012.
Software Patents, Incumbents, and Entry
Texas Law Review
2007-06-01
The ability to obtain patents on software always has been important to some industry incumbents, while others have exhibited little need for patents and, displayed strenuous opposition to the patentability of software. The incumbents are a diverse group. Some produce only software; others have substantial hardware product lines. Regardless of the sector in which they participate, the incumbents spend massive amounts on research and development (R&D) - about 14% of their annual revenues, more than $60,000 per employee. However, there are important patterns in patenting practices that raw data on R&D investments cannot explain.
The (Unnoticed) Death of the Doctrine of Equivalents
Stanford Law Review
2007-02-01
The doctrine of equivalents is an exception to normal patent infringement rules that allows patent owners to expand the scope of patents beyond their literal bounds. This paper explores what killed this doctrine in the 1990s.
Valuable Patents Redux: On the Enduring Merits of Using Patent Characteristics to Identify Valuable Patents
Texas Law Review
2007-01-01
In 2004, John Allison et al. published an article, Valuable Patents, reporting the results of the most comprehensive study ever done comparing various characteristics of patents that ended up in infringement litigation with patents that had not been litigated. David Adelman and Kathryn DeAngelis challenged the main findings of the 2004 article. In this article, we rebut each of the Adelman-DeAngelis criticisms.
Valuable Patents
Georgetown Law Journal
2004-01-01
Patents. Inventors. To most, these words conjure a vision of the solitary genius, the heroic individual-Edison, Bell, Morse-working late into the evening in a garage to perfect a device that will change the world. While a few patents are in fact for inventions that change the ...
The Business Method Patent Myth
Berkeley Technology Law Journal
2003-01-01
Internet business method patents have been roundly criticized by most observers as being singularly inferior to most other patents. Many have even argued that business methods should not be patentable subject matter. As a result, Congress and the ...
The Growing Complexity of the United States Patent System
Boston University Law Review
2002-01-01
A great deal has been written lately on the growing importance of intellectual property rights to the economy. With this new focus has come increased attention to the patent system. It is well known that the number of patents is increasing rapidly. 'Scholars offer a variety of ...
Who's Patenting What-An Empirical Exploration of Patent Prosecution
Vanderbilt Law Review
2000-01-01
Patents are big business. Individuals and companies are obtaining far more patents today than ever before. 4 Some simple calculations make it clear that companies are spending over $5 billion a year obtaining patents in the US-to say nothing of the costs of obtaining ...
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