Khaire created the course, she says, because these industries function in fundamentally different ways than those in industries more familiar to traditional HBS MBAs.
Sandy Baum, an economist at Skidmore College whose research laid the groundwork for the proposed rules, said the department's regulations set the bar very low but the judge had created an impossible threshold because "there is no one right measure, " she said.
"I can't imagine getting a patent simply on the basic items of salt, flour and eggs, simply because I've created a new use or a new product from those ingredients, " she said.