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Alden Abbott

Former FTC General Counsel; Senior Research Fellow

Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Alden Abbott became Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center in January 2021.  In that position, he oversees research on antitrust and competition policy. From 2018 to 2021, he was the General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). As the Commission’s chief legal officer and adviser, the General Counsel represents the agency in court and provides legal counsel to the Commission and its bureaus and offices. Prior to rejoining the Commission in April 2018, Mr. Abbott served in legal management positions at the Heritage Foundation (2014-2018) and BlackBerry (2012-2014). He also held a variety of senior positions in the U.S. federal government (in the FTC, the Commerce Department, and the Justice Department) prior to his retirement in 2012, as a Career Member of the Senior Executive Service. He speaks French, Spanish, and Italian.

Recent Articles by Alden Abbott

Chinese Court’s Global SEP Royalties Decision Signals Broader Threat to Western Tech Innovation

Reasonable compensation for standard essential patent (SEP) holders is crucial to create the incentives for adequate investments in standards. In particular, high-quality standards have underlain the development and proliferation of the global wireless technologies that have played such a central role in the innovation-driven growth of the internet economy. (For the key role of strong standards in technological innovation, see, for example, here, here, here, and here). It follows that the discriminatory reduction of compensation for SEP holders would reduce their incentives to participate and invest in standard setting. This in turn would reduce quality of future standards that will be key to economic growth and vitality.

Proposed European SEP Regulation Would Undermine Efficiency, Innovation and Economic Growth

The European Commission (EC) is at it again, threatening to regulate standard essential patent (SEP) licensing relationships, despite a lack of evidence that such regulation is appropriate. The economically harmful nature of this regulatory framework (and its prior draft) has been highlighted by many expert commentators, including contributors to IPWatchdog (see here, here, and here) and Truth on the Market (see here and here). Fortunately, the EC’s proposed regulatory framework is still open for public comments. Mindful of that opportunity, on May 23, Mercatus Center scholars Christine McDaniel, Satya Marar, and I filed a public interest submission with the European Commission, focusing on three sets of problems posed by the framework. I summarize our submission below.

Past Events with Alden Abbott

IPWatchdog LIVE 2023

September 17-19, 2023

IPWatchdog Annual Meeting Now VIRTUAL CON2020

September 1, 2020 @ 12:00 pm - 3:30 pm EDT