Fiber Optic Designs revisited and Merges essay

William Heinze of IP/Updates wrote about the value of defensive patent filings here. As a case in point he used the Fiber Optic Designs drama. Now Heinze blogged about law professor (University of California, Berkeley) Rob Merges' essay A Transactional View of Property Right (free download), in which the same theme is elaborated on in an illuminating way. Merges uses exclusively jurisprudence from the US, but it is (a fortiori) relevant for contracting in China too, as the Fiber Optic Designs case shows.