Professor Adam Mossoff - How Law School Professors Influence the Patent Policy Debate

Clause 8

Welcome to Clause 8 – the Voice of IP. Clause 8 is part of IPWatchdog and hosted by Eli Mazour. If you enjoy listening, please subscribe on your favorite podcasting app, share it with others, and leave a five-star rating.
This episode features an interview with Professor Adam Mossoff from George Mason University’s Scalia Law School. He is the leading academic expert when it comes to intellectual property policy issues. Most significantly, he is largely responsible for providing the intellectual foundation that has helped shift the anti-patent narrative in Washington, DC. There’s a good chance that you’ve come across his many op-eds on IP issues in publications such as the Wall Street Journal or have seen his engaging testimony at Congressional Hearings.
On this episode, Eli and Professor Mossoff discuss many subjects, including:
• how Richard Epstein influenced Professor Mossoff’s scholarship,
• how the ideals of classical liberalism relate to intellectual property rights,
• the debate among conservatives and libertarians regarding IP issues
• what’s wrong about framing IP rights as being all about providing incentives,
• the Supreme Court’s approach to patent cases,
• why Congress and the executive branch – not the Supreme Court - are the better path for improving America’s patent system
• “Why Do Law Professors Do What They Do?”
• how law school professors influence the patent policy debate,
• how trade organizations try to shape the patent policy debate by using law professors and other prominent attorneys,
• importance of law school professors making it clear when they’re acting as advocates v. as academics,
• navigating junk science studies/statistical claims about the patent system,
• importance of engaging in a positive research agenda about the patent system instead of just reacting to bad scholarship,
• empirical research overwhelmingly contradicting the patent holdup theory over the last 10 years,
• educating Congressman Darrell Issa and the importance of having evidence and data on your side,
• contradiction of China strengthening its own patent system while continuing to steal IP from other countries and having no rule of law otherwise,
• the unprecedented response by the pharmaceutical industry to the COVID‑19 pandemic thanks to the foundation previously created by America’s patent system, and
• how current changes to the patent system can undermine a similar response to the future.

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