The Digital Inventor: How Entrepreneurs compete on Platforms

February 24, 2012

An Innovation and Intellectual Property Conference

The assembly line of our knowledge-based economy begins with technology discovery and ends with the moving target of a consumer market. Connectivity is funded and rewarded through exchanges of time, money, and digital goods. The conversation in this conference will identify key priorities in technology policy for innovation, network investment, and content delivery models. Articles will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy.

Speaker Biographies

Conference Agenda:

8:30 a.m. - Breakfast Reception

8:45 a.m. - Welcoming Remarks
Daniel Polsby, Dean, George Mason University School of Law
Thomas Hazlett, Professor of Law & Economics, George Mason University

9:00 a.m. - Breakfast Keynote
Design, Institutions, and the Evolution of Platforms
Richard Langlois, University of Connecticut

9:30 a.m. - Platforms, Modularity, and Complementary Goods
Moderator: Joshua Wright, George Mason University School of Law
Andrei Hagiu, Harvard Business School, Multi-Sided Platforms
Salil Mehra, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Platforms, Teamwork and Creativity: Mediating Hierarchs in the New Economy

10:30 a.m. - Industry Keynote
Donald Rosenberg, Qualcomm, Inc., Intellectual Property and Platform Development

11:00 a.m. - Patent Litigation: Software Patents, Licensing, and Mobile OS Platforms
Moderator: Adam Mossoff, George Mason University School of Law
Anne Layne-Farrar, Compass-Lexecon, The Brothers Grimm Book of Business Models: A Survey of Literature and Developments in Patent Acquisition and Litigation
James Bessen, Boston University School of Law, The Private Costs of Patent Litigation

12:00 p.m. - Luncheon Keynote
David Teece, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, Why "Walled Gardens" Isn't Inconsistent with Open Innovation: Understanding How Ecosystems "Management" Promotes Progress