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2007-02-08 Home Front Economy

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Posted by Steve White 2007-02-08 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Ah, yes. Patents which are not recognized by developing countries. Call me crazy, but I like a company's assets to be assets, not freely copyable ideas.

The only ones hurt by patents are our own countries' companies. There are firms which only exist in order to hold patents and thereby deny innovation to other, actually productive, firms.

Posted by gromky 2007-02-08 00:12|| 2007-02-08 00:12|| Front Page Top

#2 Patent and copyright law, to be the stimulus to business they were originally intended, should be more like the General Mining Act of 1872.

It said that anyone could stake a claim anywhere, even on other people's land, but they could only keep that claim if each and every year either the land was "improved" at the cost of a given amount of money, or was mined at a profit. Otherwise, the claim ceased to be valid.

As far as patents and copyrights, they were not meant for companies to hoard and library, but to protect their rights in selling the product or idea. To just sit on a patent and wait for someone else to use it and pay royalties was not the way it was supposed to work.

So by making a "use it or lose it" law for patents and copyright, for example, the big media companies would have to retail their vast libraries of music that they own, but neither sell nor let anyone else sell, or else lose their copyright to it and it would either revert to the composer and performer, or become public domain.

Less popular music, such as classical performances, would have an explosion of marketing when they entered the public domain. The public would be able to buy what they wanted, which is the very essence of the law.

Old and valuable patents and copyrights, like Mickey Mouse, which are worth millions every year to their parent company, would still remain copyrighted as long as they were marketed; even though they have been around for a long time.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-02-08 13:35|| 2007-02-08 13:35|| Front Page Top

#3 I suspect a lot of those patents are on specific proteins and genes and are claimed by universities and pharmaceutical giants.

Posted by FOTSGreg">FOTSGreg 2007-02-08 17:01|| www.fire-on-the-suns.com]">[www.fire-on-the-suns.com] 2007-02-08 17:01|| Front Page Top

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