Summary: 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.
