In Patent Wars, one of America's leading patent scholars provides an accessible overview of U.S. patent law; the arguments for and against patents; and the ongoing debates over topics including the patentability of genes, software, and business methods, the impact of patents on drug prices, "patent trolls," and the smartphone wars.

Thomas F. Cotter is the Briggs and Morgan Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. He previously served on law faculties at the University of Florida and at Washington and Lee University. Professor Cotter's principal teaching and research interests are in the fields of intellectual property, antitrust, and law and economics. He has authored or coauthored six books and over sixty other scholarly works, and publishes the "Comparative Patent Remedies" blog.

• Prologue


• Chapter 1: What Exactly Is a Patent?


• Chapter 2: Why Patents?


• Chapter 3: Genes


• Chapter 4: Diagnostic Methods and Personalized Medicine


• Chapter 5: Software and Business Methods


• Chapter 6: Drugs


• Chapter 7: Developing Countries


• Chapter 8: Trolls


• Chapter 9: Smartphones and Other Complex Devices


• Conclusion