Jonathan Barnett
USC Gould School of Law

Jonathan Barnett is director of the law school's Media, Entertainment and Technology Law Program and the author of Innovators, Firms, and Markets: The Organizational Logic of Intellectual Property (Oxford University Press 2021). Barnett specializes in intellectual property, contracts, antitrust, and corporate law. Barnett has published in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Journal of Legal Studies, Review of Law & Economics, Journal of Corporation Law and other scholarly journals.

He joined USC Law in fall 2006 and was a visiting professor at New York University School of Law in fall 2010. Prior to academia, Barnett practiced corporate law as a senior associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York, specializing in private equity and mergers and acquisitions transactions. He was also a visiting assistant professor at Fordham University School of Law in New York. A magna cum laude graduate of University of Pennsylvania, Barnett received a MPhil from Cambridge University and a JD from Yale Law School.

Books

• Innovators, Firms, and Markets: The Organizational Logic of Intellectual Property (Oxford University Press 2021). - (www)

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Restoring Deterrence: Enhanced Damages in a No-Injunction Patent System” (with David J. Kappos), in 5G and Beyond: Intellectual Property and Competition Policy in the Internet of Things (eds. Jonathan M. Barnett and Sean M. O’Connor, forthcoming Cambridge University Press 2023). - (SSRN)
• “Intellectual Property and Transactional Choice: Rethinking the IP/Antitrust Dichotomy,” CPI Antitrust Chronicle (July 2022). - (www)
• “Regulatory Rents: An Agency-Cost Analysis of the FTC Rulemaking Initiative,” in FTC’s Rulemaking Authority (ed. Daniel Crane, Concurrences 2022). - (SSRN)
• “The Economic Case Against Licensing Negotiation Groups in the Internet of Things,” Journal of Antitrust Enforcement (2022). - (SSRN)
• “The ‘License as Tax’ Fallacy,” 28 Michigan Technology Law Review 197 (2022) . - (SSRN) - (www)
• "Patent Groupthink Unravels," Harvard Journal of Law & Technology (Spring 2021)  - (PDF)
• “The Great Patent Grab,” in The Battle over Patents: History and the Politics of Innovation (eds. Stephen H. Haber and Naomi R. Lamoreaux, Oxford University Press 2021). - (www)
• "Why Big Tech Likes Weak IP," Regulation (Spring 2021). - (www)
• "How and Why Almost Every Competition Regulator Was Wrong About Standard-Essential Patents," CPI Antitrust Chronicle (December 2020). - (www)
• “The Case for Noncompetes,” 87 University of Chicago Law Review 953 (2020) (with Ted Sichelman)   - (www)
• "Stealth Commoditization: The Misuse of Smartphone Antitrust," CPI Antitrust Chronicle (September 23, 2019)  - (SSRN)
• “'Patent Tigers' and Global Innovation," 42 Regulation 14 (Winter 2019-2020),   - (PDF)
• "Antitrust Overreach: Undoing Cooperative Standardization in the Digital Economy", 25 Michigan Technology Law Review 163 (2019) - (SSRN) - (www)
• “The Certification Paradox”, in Cambridge Handbook of Technical Standardization Law, Vol. 2 (Jorge L. Contreras, ed., Cambridge University Press) (forthcoming 2019).  - (SSRN)
•  “The Patent System at a Crossroads,” 41 Regulation 44 (Spring 2018) - (PDF)
• "The Costs of Free: Commoditization, Bundling and Concentration", 14 Journal of Institutional Economics 1097 (2018).  - (www)
• “Patent Tigers: The New Geography of Global Innovation”, 2 Criterion Journal on Innovation 429 (2017). - (PDF)
• “Has the Academy Led Patent Law Astray?” 32 Berkeley Technology Law Journal  1313 (2017). - (SSRN) - (www)
• "Why is Everyone Afraid of IP Licensing?" 30 Harvard Journal of Law & Technology 123 (2017). - (Hein) - (www)
• "Are There Really Patent Thickets?" 39 Regulation 14 (Winter 2016-2017). - (PDF)
• "Three Quasi-Fallacies in the Conventional Understanding of Intellectual Property," 12 Journal of Law, Economics & Policy 1 (2016). - (Hein) - (www)
• "The Anti-Commons Revisited," 29 Harvard Journal of Law and Technology 127 (2015). - (Hein) - (www) - (SSRN)
• “Hollywood Deals: Soft Contracts for Hard Markets,” 64 Duke Law Journal 605 (2015). - (Hein) - (SSRN) - (bepress)
• “From Patent Thickets to Patent Networks: The Legal Infrastructure of the Digital Economy,” 55 Jurimetrics 1 (2014) - (SSRN) - (bepress) - (Hein)
• "Copyright Without Creators,” 9 Review of Law & Economics 389 (2013). - (SSRN) - (bepress)
• "Intermediaries Revisited: Is Efficient Certification Consistent with Profit Maximization?" 37 Journal of Corporation Law 475 (2012). - (SSRN) - (bepress) - (Hein)
• "The Host's Dilemma: Strategic Forfeiture in Platform Markets for Informational Goods," 124 Harvard Law Review 1861 (2011). - (www) - (SSRN) - (bepress) - (Hein)
• "What's So Bad About Stealing?" 4 Journal of Tort Law 1 (2011). - (bepress) - (SSRN)
• "Intellectual Property as a Law of Organization," 84 Southern California Law Review 785 (2011). - (SSRN) - (bepress) - (PDF) - (Hein)
• "Do Patents Matter? Empirical Evidence on the Incentive Thesis," in Handbook on Law, Innovation & Growth (Robert E. Litan, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing) (2011). - (SSRN) - (www)
• "The Illusion of the Commons," 25 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 1751 (2010). - (Hein) - (SSRN) - (bepress)
• "The Fashion Lottery: Cooperative Innovation in Stochastic Markets," 39 Journal of Legal Studies 159 (2010) (with Gilles Grolleau and Sana El-Harbi). - (SSRN) - (bepress)
• "Property as Process: How Innovation Markets Select Innovation Regimes," 119 Yale Law Journal 384 (2009). - (SSRN) - (Hein) - (bepress)
• "Is Intellectual Property Trivial?" 157 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1691 (2009). - (Hein) - (SSRN) - (bepress)
• "Certification Drag: The Opinion Puzzle and Other Transactional Curiosities," 33 Journal of Corporation Law 95 (2007). - (Hein) - (SSRN) - (bepress)
• "Shopping for Gucci on Canal Street: Status Consumption, Intellectual Property and the Incentive Thesis," 91 Virginia Law Review 1381 (2005). - (Hein) - (SSRN)
• "Private Protection of Patentable Goods," 25 Cardozo Law Review 1251 (2004). - (Hein) - (SSRN)
• "Rational Underenforcement of Vice Laws," 54 Rutgers Law Review 423 (2002). - (Hein) - (SSRN)
• "Cultivating the Genetic Commons: Imperfect Patent Protection and the Network Model of Innovation," 37 San Diego Law Review 987 (2000). - (Hein) - (SSRN)
• "Rights, Costs, and the Incommensurability Problem," 86 Virginia Law Review 1303 (2000). - (Hein)

Other Publications

• “Unconventional Wisdom: How Patents Facilitate Entry and Promote Competition,” Intellectual Asset Management, Forthcoming August 2022. 
• “The Market Challenge to Populist Antitrust,” Truth on the Market, May 17, 2022.  - (www)
• “The FTC Abandons the Free Market,” Symposium on FTC UMC Rulemaking Authority, International Center for Law & Economics, May 2, 2022.  - (www)
• "How Not to Promote U.S. Innovation," Truth on the Market, Feb. 18, 2022. - (www)
• "Does the Market Know Something the FTC Doesn't?," Truth on the Market, Feb. 10, 2022. - (www)
• "Time to Nix Antitrust Policies that Fueled Blocked Nvidia Deal," Law360, Feb. 10, 2022. - (www)
• "FTC strays from fact-based enforcement and rule of law," The Hill, Nov. 16, 2021. - (www)
• “Startup Exit Strategies in the New Antitrust Era,” Bloomberg Law, Aug. 11, 2021. - (www)
• “Old Ideas and the New New Deal,” Truth on the Market, Aug. 2, 2021. - (www)
• “How IP Rights Keep Markets Free,” Policy Brief, Hudson Institute, June 9, 2021. - (www)
• “Anti-innovation Policy,” Policy Brief, Renewing American Innovation Project, Center for Security and International Studies, June 4, 2021. - (www)
• “Antitrust Lessons from the AT&T’s M&A Fiasco,” Truth on the Market, May 24, 2021 - (www)
• “Have Tech Platforms Captured the Supreme Court?,” The Hill, April 18, 2021 - (www)
• “Covid-19 Vaccine Highlights the Need for Balanced Patent Policy” (with David Kappos), Bloomberg Law, March 16, 2021 - (www)
• “Investors and Regulators Can Both Fall for Market Bubbles,” Truth on the Market, March 2, 2021 - (www)
• “Antitrust by Fiat,” Truth on the Market, February 23, 2021 (also appeared in Competition Policy International and Concurrences). - (www)
• “How FTC v. Qualcomm Led to the Nvidia-Arm Acquisition,” Truth on the Market, February 17, 2021 - (www)
• "Antitrustifying Contract: Thoughts on Epic Games v. Apple and Apple v. Qualcomm," Truth on the Market, Oct. 26, 2020 - (www)
• "Unfair use, democracy and the Supreme Court," The Hill, October 6, 2020 - (www)
• "The Long Shadow of the Blackberry Shutdown That Wasn't," Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property, July 2020 - (PDF)
• "Will Montesquieu Rescue Antitrust," Truth on the Market, August 25, 2020 - (www)
• "Big is not necessarily bad," The Hill, July 30, 2020 - (www)
• "Lessons from Luckin Coffee: The Underappreciated Risks of Variable Interest Entities," CLS Blue Sky Blog (Columbia Law School), July 29, 2020
  - (www)
• "For the Bar, Competition Is Always 'Unethical'", Truth on the Market, June 8, 2020  - (www)
• "The End of Patent Groupthink," Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property, April 2020  - (PDF)
• "The Forgotten Virtues of Doing Nothing," Truth on the Market, Nov. 12, 2019  - (www)
• "The Puzzling Case of the WeWork Non-IPO," The CLS Blue Sky Blog, Oct. 8, 2019  - (www)
• "Qualcomm ruling a case of antitrust gone wrong", The Hill (May 28, 2019),   - (PDF)
• "Antitrust Overreach: Undoing Cooperative Standardization in the Digital Economy," The CLS Blue Sky Blog, Nov. 28, 2018  - (www)
• “Digital Disruption Demands Antitrust Restraint”, The Hill, July 4, 2018 (also posted at Competition Policy International, July 4, 2018).   - (www)
• “SCOTUS is about to decide to hear the easiest antitrust case ever”, The Hill, March 31, 2018 (also posted at Competition Policy International, April 2, 2018).   - (www)
• "Does the Supreme Court Understand the Innovation Economy?" (with Ted Sichelman), Forbes, July 13, 2017. - (www)
• “An Economic Argument Against Mandatory Patent Exhaustion” (with Ted Sichelman), Patently-O, March 19, 2017. - (www)
• "Amicus Brief of 44 Law, Economics and Business Professors in Support of Respondent in Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., Supreme Court of the United States" (Filed Feb. 23, 2017) (co-lead author, with Ted Sichelman).
    - (SSRN)

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January 18, 2023
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Michael Simkovic recently discussed how many crypto firms are working to reorganize after the economic market downturns. “Cryptocurrency firms basically have to answer the question, ‘What is the value that they provide that existing financial institutions cannot provide just as well,’” Simkovic said.

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