Louis E. Bertone

Louis E. Bertone (born February 25, 1954) is a lawyer and professor of Law. In his own words, he was like Molière's character who didn't realize that he spoke in prose - despite an exposure to Law and Economics since early career: It wasn't until he came to teach in 2004 at the [http://www.facultefaco.com Faculté Libre de Droit d'Economie et de Gestion] in Paris that he became formally aware of the need to approach the two disciplines together.

Law & Economics

His contact with Law & Economics goes back to a first experience in public office at the Direccion General de Legislacion Economica (1981), as Cabinet Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce (1982), and as consultant for the [http://www.iadb.org/intal/index.asp?idioma=ENG INTAL] division of the Inter-American Development Bank in Argentina (1983-1984). He later experienced drilling down from macro to micro, as Associate General Counsel Europe Middle East & Africa with Oracle Corporation and as Vice-President Senior Counsel with Baan Company in France, with a focus on negotiation of (micro)economically efficient outcomes.

Before and after these in-house positions, he still was (as outside counsel) more of a negotiator than a litigator. While lecturing at Santa Clara University in 2001, David D. Friedman's "Law's Order" (2000) came as a revelation. Friedman's metaphor of "Clouds and Barbed Wire" was immediately appealing for someone with a thesis on transfer of technology. In addition, if the « law of the parties » is by far the most significant fraction of all law, and « all goods and services including law itself could be "produced" by the free market », then he had been one significant "producer" for the past 20 years.

Life and work

The son of professors Angel Bertone (Philosophy) and Federica Bertone (Literature), he holds a JD degree ("Abogado") of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (1976) and a JSD degree of the Université de Paris(1980). In parallel with a career as counsel, he participated in the group of experts of the WIPO Model Law for Developing Countries on Inventions and Know-How, and attended several EU meetings prior to the enactment of the Directives on Computer Programs and Databases. Most recently he attended as a Delegate the OECD meetings .

He was Adjunct Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Module Leader at the University of Westminster, lectured severally for Santa Clara University and in one occasion for a Summer Course in Paris of the University of San Diego; he is currently a professor of law at the [http://www.facultefaco.com Faculté Libre de Droit d'Economie et de Gestion] in Paris as well as a contributing editor for the European Edu-series webzine.

Non-academic interests

A decent chess player, he stayed away from competition since college, but rather attempted to measure certain axioms of contemporary game theory against this yardstick. His taste for the highly asymmetrical Najdorf line of the Sicilian Defense inspired findings on asymmetric preferences, competition and bargaining.

As a self-taught Java and php programmer, he cannot be said to have achieved any breakthrough in data processing paradigms. Instead, he used his experience of languages with no tolerance to ambiguity in his Law and Literature courses. Similarly, his awareness of function interactions and logical loop traps proved useful in dynamic programming, in both academic, professional and business positions.

After majoring with straight As in History, he never pursued historical studies towards the completion of the MA degree. He thus relegated History to a non-academic, yet strong interest. In early career he published and lectured in historical matters, with eclectic tastes. Most recently, his video production activities are focused on the historical World Heritage.

Bibliography

Economic Legislation

Award-winning paper

* « Macroeconomic Cooperation and Monetary Cooperation in Integration Processes», Segundo Concurso de Ensayos INTAL, IADB, 2004.

Books

* Le Transfert de Technologie en Droit Communautaire Comparé (thesis), Paris, 1981.
* Marco Juridico y Fiscal de los Pagos Internationales de los paises de América Latina, Inter-American Development Bank INTAL, 1985.
* Derecho de Marcas (2 vols, with Guillermo Cabanellas, Editorial Heliasta, Buenos Aires, 1989. Second Edition, 2003.

Papers

* « Régime Juridique et Fiscal des Investissements Etrangers en Argentine », La Semaine Juridique, December 1976.
* « Propriété Industrielle et Droit du Développement », Revue Internationale de la Propriété Industrielle et Artistique, June 1977.
* « La loi du 22 Décembre 1980 sur les Marques », Revue Internationale de la Propriété Industrielle et Artistique, October 1981.
* « Host Country Taxation of Transfer of Technology Transactions » (with Guillermo Cabanellas), Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, 1981.
* « Los procesos de integracion y la proteccion de la innovacion tecnologica », Integracion Latinoamericana, June 1982.
* « Les Importations, Exportations et Fabrications Nucléaires dans le cadre du droit des Communautés ou zones d’Intégration », Nuclear Energy Law, 1985.
* « The WIPO Model Law for Developing Countries : a new patent profile », Patent World, 1987.
* « Le levier du Droit Communautaire des Marques » (with Marie-Aimee de Dampierre] ), Revue de Droit de la Propriété Industrielle, 1988.
* « The EEC Directive on Computer Software » "European Community Law after 1992" (Folsom, R., Lake, R. and Nanda, V. eds.), Kluwer, The Netherlands, 1993. Second Edition, 1996.
* « Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in the Information Society », Replies from Interested Parties (European Commission), 1995.
* « Comments to the EU Discussion Paper on Restrictive Practices», Replies from Interested Parties (European Commission) June 2006, http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/antitrust/art82/086.pdf
* « Syllogisme, Invention et Biopiraterie » (Summer 2007, Revue Digitale de la Propriété Intellectuelle).
* « Economic Growth, Tax Complexity and Consistency in Latin-America » (Summer 2008).