Two Law Professors’ Plan to Downsize Patent Litigation

In a move that drew attention around the country, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk last June cleared all the company’s patents from display in the Palo Alto headquarters. “Maybe [patents] were good long ago, but too often these days they serve merely to stifle progress ... and enrich those in the legal profession,” he explained .

But when Musk publicly pledged that Tesla will not initiate any patent lawsuits – a position that other tech executives have embraced – it was only a voluntary commitment that could be broken.

Such promises, however, could be made into legally binding commitments under a framework laid out earlier this year ...