The Secret Circuit: The Little-Known Court Where the Rules of the Information Age Unfold [Paperback]

Bruce D. Abramson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0742552810 | ISBN-13: 978-0742552814

Imagine a high impact, low profile, nonpartisan government institution located across the street from the White House. Imagine that it plays a central role in shaping our technology industries, in overseeing globalization, and in holding the federal government responsible for its commercial activities. Imagine that only Congress and the Supreme Court can correct its mistakes. Such an institution exists. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was born in the early 1980s as part of the drive to liberalize and reinvigorate the American economy. Over the past twenty-five years, it has earned its nickname as the 'patent court' by revolutionizing American patent law, but it also oversees international trade law and government business law. Taken together, its docket covers the rules guiding innovation, globalization, and much of government. Are these rules impelling the economy forward or holding it back? Are the policies we have the policies we want? How are we faring, as the economy transitions from the industrial age to the information age? What responsibility does the Federal Circuit bear in shaping America's current economic policies in these three critical areas? The Secret Circuit demystifies this Court's work and answers these questions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Federal Circuit--the nation's patent court of appeals--is at center stage of current controversies over U.S. patent law. Bruce Abramson's new book is an authoritative study of the court, remarkable for the lucidity with which it describes highly technical legal and scientific issues, and critical but fair-minded. (Posner, Richard A. )

Abramson has produced a provocative look at a Court who's power is far greater than most realize. In doing so, he has brought to life the Federal Circuit's rich history, its jurisprudential successes and failures, and the very real challenges facing what is perhaps the most important legal body in the modern U.S. economy. (R. Polk Wagner )

..."The Secret Circuit" serves as an excellent primer on the last time the law was revised while also providing some good analysis on the effectiveness of America's patent system in achieving economic growth. (Joshua Spivak )

In this remarkable book, Bruce Abramson provides a lively tutorial to our entire legal system, through the lens of a little-known, but highly important court in the United States that determines the validity of patents and regulates international trade. It is a tour de force which should be widely read. (Robert Litan )

About the Author

Bruce D. Abramson received his Ph.D. from Columbia and his J.D. from Georgetown. He is the President of Informationism, Inc., a San Francisco-based consultancy that helps an international clientele understand the law, the policies, the economics, and the strategic uses of intellectual property. He has served as a member of the Computer Science faculty at the University of Southern California and as a law clerk at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He is the author of Digital Phoenix: Why the Information Economy Collapsed and How It Will Rise Again (MIT Press, 2005). His blog, The Informationist, (www.theinformationist.com), contains his musings on IP, tech policy, and numerous other issues.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (August 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742552810
• ISBN-13: 978-0742552814
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,596,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bruce Abramson, Ph.D, JD, possesses a rare ability to express complex analyses in simple English. His twenty-five years as an Intellectual Property consultant, an economic analyst, and an attorney have taught him to speak technology, business, and law with equal comfort. His decade-plus in litigation and regulatory settings has sensitized him to the unique needs of clients operating in adversarial environments. He employs these skills along several avenues:

* As an expert witness, he focuses primarily on two critical elements of corporate litigation: valuing damages/remedies; and industry analysis in technology industries.
* As a consultant, he helps his clients navigate complex litigation or regulatory hurdles, value portfolios of intellectual property and other intangible assets and execute successful launch strategies and growth plans.
* As a mediator, he helps parties cut through emotionally charged positioning to find rational, cost-effective solutions.
* As a speaker, he combines information and entertainment to tailor presentations on a wide variety of topics to the interests and background of his audience.

He is also active in relevant research, having written two books on technology policy aimed at a general audience, published extensively in the scholarly literature of Computer Science, Management, and Law, and had his article on admissibility standards for expert testimony named one of the year's best by the Defense Law Journal.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read that yields an interesting look into the world of patents, November 7, 2008

By 

Brian B. Eller (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Circuit: The Little-Known Court Where the Rules of the Information Age Unfold (Paperback)

I read this book before entering law school, and I had little previous knowledge regarding the federal circuit or anything in the field of Intellectual Property (IP). I had heard from others that the field was, well kind of dry, but this book really changed my mind.

This book basically gives an intro into the current challenges facing the world of IP. IP is an exploding field, where new decisions with dramatic affects are being made everyday. The author shows why Microsoft, Cisco, and the entire software industry battled it out with Johnson and Johnson and the whole biotech industry over a patent on break pedals. He showed that how one defines words, whether from a dictionary or a technical journal rather than in a way regarding the specific fact situation, decides the fates of multiple patents. The author explains the outrage behind 'patent trolls' and how one patent can legally shut down every blackberry in America (after reading this book, I found myself on the side of the trolls).

If you want an interesting read or if you just want to sounds smart when talking to an IP attorney or IP law professor, this book is a good read. However, if your looking for something for pure entertainment or intellectual value, some chapters are better than others (so I would skip around). Similarly, I haven't read many other books regarding the current state of IP in the U.S., so consider that when reading this review.

5.0 out of 5 stars Three cheers for "idiosyncratic intellectual digressions", September 14, 2011

By 

Critical Reader (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret Circuit: The Little-Known Court Where the Rules of the Information Age Unfold (Paperback)

This book is an argument, but presents the facts dispassionately, enough to let you make up your own mind. This balance may be wasted: I cannot imagine anyone who does not have lots of interest in the topic--hence pre-formed opinions--to engage this book (though the title suggests a thriller...) This is too bad, in a way, as the author makes clear this court is one that ordinary citizens should care about, a lot.

In short, read this book. If you don't know much when you start, you will when you are done. If you are knowledgeable a priori, read it for the pleasure of talking a long walk with a smart guy.

I give this (five) thumbs up

PS If I have to earn my critical bona fides by finding some fault, I would point out the slight hyperbole that sometimes creeps into the text (eg p 28, America will not be a lawless society, adrift, if the supreme court (seemingly capriciously) overturns its prior decisions... (and I can earn my bona fides as a name dropping intellectual empty suit by citing Heraclitus" "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.")

4.0 out of 5 stars Review by the Berglund Center for Internet Studies, April 19, 2011

By 

Berglund Center for Internet Studies - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret Circuit: The Little-Known Court Where the Rules of the Information Age Unfold (Paperback)

This has been, for me, a perplexing book to review. I find it well researched and generally well written, particularly given the complexity of its subject. For certain niche audiences, the work will prove very valuable. However, I must question a number of important decisions made by the author in organizing it, and wonder precisely for which audience the work is intended. Another flaw with the work is that it was, I feel, in part sold under false colors. The sub-title as well as the colorful cover of the work with its background of digital numerals behind a classical balance scale, all implies that the work will deal quite directly with the information age. The work as a whole seems to me to be cluttered with the author's continually idiosyncratic intellectual digressions. At the end I think it potentially valuable for a number of discrete audiences, but question the authorial decision to attempt to lump such a broad grouping of topics together, despite their focus in the work of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

For a full review see interface, Volume 8, Issue 1.