RE: patents

[Karen Watters Cole]

Ray & Chris:  I’m not very versed in patents, but found a historical footnote interesting, at least for US implications and enduring impact:  the Wright Brothers spent a lot of time and effort filing patents on their airplane, trying to monopolize development.  There was another man named Curtis who first flew from city to city, and sold the first airplane, demonstrating his grasp of application, but in opposition to the efforts of the Wright Brothers to keep the benefits to themselves.  They say that the Wright Brothers spent most of their time after Kitty Hawk filing patents, not continuing with their invention.    This is a gross simplification, but over time, this patenting of airplane technology became so restrictive that it was finally abandoned lock stock and barrel, so that in the ongoing years of great US innovations in aeronautical design and technology, US companies provided a lot of free R&D for their European competition.  One extreme led to a different consequence than originally intended.    Isn’t it interesting how the actions of a few individuals at a crossroads of history, science and politics can influence history, if not change it?   Bush and the fundamentalists are at such a crossroads of medical research today.  US scientists defecting to the UK to work is the least of it.     My father, who lost one kidney to cancer and a younger cousin with Type I diabetes, might benefit someday by progress in stem cell research into organ replacement, so the debate about this is personal for me.  We are again looking at another battleground where the modernists and the fundamentalists are waging war.     Karen