We’re joined by a scholar of patent law, administrative law, and many other things, Jonathan Masur. Jonathan does not think the patent office has done a very good job of conducting cost-benefit analyses of various rules and procedures for issuing, maintaining, and challenging patents. Supposing patents should exist at all - can you tell who writes these show notes? - how should we account for the effects of the way we administer the system? These questions lead us to some basic conversation about cost-benefit analysis and and the value of patents. And we wind up asking simple questions, like what a cost is.

This show’s links:

• Jonathan Masur’s faculty profile and writing
• Jonathan Masur, CBA at the PTO
• Jonathan Masur and Eric Posner, Unquantified Benefits and the Problem of Regulation Under Uncertainty
• Cuozzo Speed Technologies v. Lee
• Patent and Trademark Office, Changes to Implement Inter Partes Review Proceedings, Post-Grant Review Proceedings (at 48720-48722)
• Patent and Trademark Office, Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees in accordance with Section 10 of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act
• Paul Heald, A Transaction Cost Theory of Patent Law

Special Guest: Jonathan Masur.