Intellectual Property as Price Discrimination: Implications for Contract

Authors

Wendy J. Gordon, Boston University School of LawFollow

Author granted license

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1998

ISSN

0009-3599

Publisher

Chicago-Kent College of Law

Language

en-US

Abstract

As people become enamored with the possible benefits of allowing price discrimination in contracts for intellectual goods, they should realize that traditional intellectual property law works by fostering price discrimination among customers. This simple fact has implications for federal pre-emption, and is a reminder of the complexity of the economic issues involved. Increasing a seller's ability to price discriminate will often involve increasing his monopoly power, with dubious welfare effects.

Comments

Symposium on the Internet and Legal Theory. Reprinted in Intellectual Property Rights: Critical Concepts in Law, David Vaver, ed., Routledge (2006).

Recommended Citation

Wendy J. Gordon, Intellectual Property as Price Discrimination: Implications for Contract , in 73 Chicago-Kent Law Review 1367 (1998).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/2050