October Blog o’ Blogs

Our Oct. Blog ‘o Blogs includes a Mark Lemley interview exploring IP & antitrust; an antitrust approach to choosing a Rabbi; a look at whether the Sherman Act is “frisky” enough to deal with online businesses; the French approach—or non-approach—to setting fines; the threat of Behavioral Antitrust; market definition questions in a Google and Facebook interaction; appropriate interaction between an IP Tsar and competition authorities; and a guess as to whether a new DOJ appointment changes the DOJ’s approach to competition policy. We end with an antitrust history story involving the ITT breakup and bribery.

On the Record with Mark Lemley: The Presumption of Validity

It’s a patent case, at least on the periphery, and an antitrust case. And the combination of the two would seem to me to be attractive to the Supreme Court. Gene Quinn (IP Watchdog)

Rabbi Searches Are Tough, But Are They Also Illegal?
An antitrust analysis in a unique context.
Barak D. Richman (The Jewish Daily Forward)

Time to Wake Up and Smell the Antitrust

If it walks, talks, acts, and smells like a monopolist, odds are it’s a monopolist. Eric K. Clemons (The Huffington Post)

Towards Greater Convergence on the Calculation of Fines
More importantly, the Paris Court of Appeals applied a calculation method that significantly diverged from the one used by the Authority. Eric Barbier de la Serre (Latham & Watkins)

Misbehavioral Economics: The Case Against Behavioral Antitrust
Will regulators use behavioral economics to “dress up” preferred policy positions in a veil of economic rigor? Joshua Wright (Truth on the Market)

Doing No Evil

How Google and Facebook can work—and compete—with each other. Robert Hahn & Peter Passell (Forbes)

Time for a Tsar—and a Tsar for Our Times?

Among her other roles, should the IP tsar stand up to the competition authorities? Jeremy Phillips (Intellectual Law and Practice Journal)

A Matter of Control

Merger lawyers are trying to divine how upcoming changes at the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division will affect deal timing and analysis… Cecile Kohrs Lindell (The Deal)

Behind Nixon’s Big SD Scandal

In return for them ponying up this money, Nixon ordered his staff to give ITT what it wanted and lay off the antitrust litigation. Randy Dotinga (Voice of San Diego)