FRP Speaker John Allison Informs BBA Students of Business Patents in Infringement
February 5, 2012 Leave a comment
On Tuesday, January 24th, the Undergraduate Business Council proudly featured a presentation from distinguished Professor John Allison discussing “Can Changing Procedures Change Legal Outcomes? Patent Litigation and the Internet.”
John R. Allison is the Spence Centennial Professor of Business Administration and a Professor of Intellectual Property in the McCombs School’s Department of Business, Government, & Society. Among other subjects, Professor Allison teaches Intellectual Property Law. For many years, he has conducted empirical studies of the patent system, patenting behavior, patent infringement litigation, and related matters, publishing his results in some of the top law journals in the country. Professor Allison’s area of study is intellectual property, and he has dedicated his career to the study of law and how it correlates with business.
During the presentation, Professor Allison showed how his research statistically analyzes the rates at which Internet business method patents were involved in infringement litigation. He also showed how these rates changed throughout the 10 years after they were first granted in large numbers to Internet businesses. His research expands far beyond the frequency of litigation, as he also presented the differences in legal outcomes based on various different categories of patents. Professor Allison’s presentation was a huge success and informed McCombs students of topics they don’t always get to discuss within business classrooms. We look forward to the next Faculty Research Presentation by Marketing Professor Ty Henderson on Tuesday, February 7th.
Written by: Alli Gross and Fernanda Alvarez
