ABSTRACT
Complaints of a “litigation explosion” have led to a acceleration of interest in the study of litigation. This chapter looks at a locality significant for the development of an industry, to see the changing nature and incidence of its litigation. It fcouses on civil litigation, with some mention both of arbitration and of proceedings before the International Trade Commission, which have assumed considerable importance in relation to imports into the United States. The basic story is described by Dan R. Krislov and George F. Gilder, and revolves round silicon, and its functional development. Krislov describes the early days of Silicon Valley as exhibiting a “subtle mixture of cooperation and competition”, which might have been enough to inhibit litigation. There is some temptation to regard the early period of Silicon Valley as some kind of litigation-free Golden Age, in which employees went from company to company without being sued, and patents were not applied for, not enforced or freely cross-licensed.
