Cognitive Economy and the Trespass Fallacy: A Response to Professor Mossoff

Abstract

In his recent essay The Trespass Fallacy in Patent Law, Professor Adam Mossoff argues cogently that the metaphor of trespass has become a misused basis for patent indeterminacy critiques that it cannot conceptually or empirically support. While sharing his caution that metaphors are not to be trifled with, this reply suggests that trespass has both a smaller role and a larger potential benefit in the debate on patent indeterminacy, and advances an opposite solution.

Keywords: intellectual property, property, patent, trespass, notice, indeterminacy