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Same facts as above: Farmer Bob, a producer of high-quality…

Same facts as above: Farmer Bob, a producer of high-quality organic oats, contracts to provide Grocery Store owner Julia with 1,000 bags of oats for $10 per bag. Bob’s cost of production is $6 per bag. After the contract signing, Julia spends $4,000 on new marketing materials to promote the new line of oats. She plans to sell the oats for $16 a bag. A short time later, Bob gets a better offer from a restaurant chain that offers him $20 per bag for the 1,000 bags. Bob accepts the new offer and tells Julia that he will not fulfill the original contract. At this point, Julia is able to fully replace the 1,000 bags of oats by buying similar quality oats from another supplier at $15 per bag. However, the new marketing materials she bought are now worthless. Assume that Julia has not made any payments to Bob so far. In order for it to be efficient for Bob to breach the original contract with Julia, the new buyer must be willing to pay Bob at least a tiny bit more than ___________.

Two examples of patent applications are provided below: Gluc…

Two examples of patent applications are provided below: GlucoZep and Spork-a-Pen.  Assume that neither invention infringes upon exiting patents. Explain why each invention warrants patent protection or not, making sure to refer to the economic purpose of patent law and the principles discussed in class.   Product A: “GlucoZep”    A pharmaceutical company spends a decade and $1 billion on research and development to create a novel drug that, for the first time, safely reverses cellular insulin resistance, effectively curing Type 2 diabetes. A rival lab could easily reverse-engineer and replicate the drug’s chemical formula for a tiny fraction of that cost. Product B: “The Spork-a-Pen”    An inventor takes a standard plastic spork and drills a hole in the handle, into which he inserts the ink cartridge from a ballpoint pen, creating an all-in-one eating and writing utensil.