Taboo Patents with Andrew Gilden & Sarah Rajec
Sat Feb 07 2026
My guests today are Andrew Gilden, Southwestern Law School, and Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec, William & Mary Law School. They join me today to discuss their recent paper, Patenting the Taboo: Sex, Drugs, and Abortion, recently published in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology. It’s a really fun article that looks at patent applications in three taboo spaces: sexual pleasure, illicit drugs, and abortion technologies. Some of the themes are very similar to ones Andrew Jennings and I highlight in our recent paper, Vice Capital, in which we interview founders and investors in these same spaces. I highly recommend their paper, even if you don’t have a particular interest or expertise in patent law.
Show Notes
About Andrew Gilden
About Sarah Rajec
About Kim Krawiec
Gilden, Andrew, and Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec. "Patenting the Taboo: Sex, Drugs, and Abortion." Yale Journal of Law and Technology, forthcoming (2025).
Gilden, Andrew, and Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec. "Pleasure Patents." BCL Rev. 63 (2022): 571.
Jennings, Andrew K., and Kimberly D. Krawiec. "Vice Capital." UC Irvine Law Review 15 (2025): 427.
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My guests today are Andrew Gilden, Southwestern Law School, and Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec, William & Mary Law School. They join me today to discuss their recent paper, Patenting the Taboo: Sex, Drugs, and Abortion, recently published in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology. It’s a really fun article that looks at patent applications in three taboo spaces: sexual pleasure, illicit drugs, and abortion technologies. Some of the themes are very similar to ones Andrew Jennings and I highlight in our recent paper, Vice Capital, in which we interview founders and investors in these same spaces. I highly recommend their paper, even if you don’t have a particular interest or expertise in patent law. Show Notes About Andrew Gilden About Sarah Rajec About Kim Krawiec Gilden, Andrew, and Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec. "Patenting the Taboo: Sex, Drugs, and Abortion." Yale Journal of Law and Technology, forthcoming (2025). Gilden, Andrew, and Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec. "Pleasure Patents." BCL Rev. 63 (2022): 571. Jennings, Andrew K., and Kimberly D. Krawiec. "Vice Capital." UC Irvine Law Review 15 (2025): 427.