We study the decision of when to sue in a game in which multiple plaintiffs have similar cases against a single defendant. Two legal regimes are considered. In one, prior results are binding in all future cases. In contrast, under the prevalent asymmetric regime, adverse results are binding against the defendant in future actions, but a judgement adverse to one plaintiff will not be binding aga...

in the past and before granting the inventors and owners of intellectual property rights special exclusive rights and privileges under the patent laws, the protection of intellectual property rights was possible only through a legal regime which could help to keep the know how and innovation secret. this regime, in which contractual terms are often used to keep the innovation secret, is called ...

In the absence of a legal regime enforcing promises, the classical prediction of contract theory is that promisees will unverinvest in reliance whenever the promisor has a self-interested reason to break her promise down the road. But if a promisor experiences guilt for breaking her promise, this guilt may be intensified by the promisee’s reliance on the promise. Anticipating this, the promisee...

HE role and structure of the Hungarian legal profession both changed quite markedly after the changeover from the communist regime (1989), particularly because of the opportunities provided by the new market economy. The legal profession in Hungary is generally of a high standard because of the elitist approach which once prevailed in the university education system, reinforced by a technocrati...

Fear of legal claims on intellectual property rights (IPRs) sometimes paralyzes standards processes. IPR procedures of standards bodies address such problems. However, by default unresolved problems will be addressed by the legal regime. The process of Java‘ standardization, which is a red thread in this article, well illustrates what may happen. In case of conflict between IPRs and compatibili...

The delegates to COP21 in Paris, in conjunction with nationally formulated commitments and pledges, resolved that countries should take actions to ‘‘hold the increase in global temperature to well below 2 1C above pre-industrial levels’’ and to achieve ‘‘a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removal by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century’’. This resol...

Background: Collecting data in the form of databases is one of the new methods that has been growing with the advancement of information technology. The use of databases in management and policy-making has created challenges in areas such as privacy breaches and compliance with accepted ethical norms. The increasing use of databases in public and private organizations in Iran has introduced new...