Commercial Law welcomes guest blogger Marc L. Roark, a visiting associate professor of law, at University of Missouri teaching torts, secured transactions and sales. Marc will join University of LaVerne next year. Marc's recent paper, Limitation of Sales Warranties as an Alternative to Intellectual Property Rights: An Empirical Analysis of iPhone Warranties' Deterrent Impact on Consumers, considers whether limitation of warranties may actually have a deterrence effect on consumers that manufacturers desire; said differently, the article weighs whether manufacturers can achieve their goals of preventing consumers from using their products in an unauthorized manner by removing warranty protections from the consumer. Marc concludes that warranties do matter to consumers and that companies could use them better to their advantage to encourage desired consumer behavior by restricting warranty access for consumers who misuse products.Welcome Marc!
