ABSTRACT
Ronald Coase was a story-teller and his essay, The Problem of Social Cost (1960) contains narrative examples on nearly every page that vividly illustrate his thesis that economic efficiency does not require that those acting in a market should be legally responsible for all the harm they cause. I will proceed in a complementary (and complimentary) manner. My own narrative will consider Firm A, a large car manufacturer that has been working to improve the fuel efficiency of its cars. After several years, its engineers invent a new fuel injection system which promises to be highly successful. After marketing its new cars, however, Firm A is sued by Firm B who claims an enforceable patent on the innovation. This essay explores the usefulness of conceiving of the activity of Firm A, and the activity of other hypothetical intellectual property infringers, as constituting the sort of nuisance considered by Coase (Newman, 2009).
