On Fri, 2004-06-04 at 07:30, Tomlinson, Steven B wrote: > I like the U.S. Patent, Trademark, and Copyright system. It is part of the > foundation of my country and was written into our Constitution from the > beginning. Some organizations may find ways to unfairly exploit the system, > however, in the end, common sense tends to prevail and the exploitation is > undone and the process and intent of the IP system becomes more clearly > defined along the way. > For example, in 1993 Compton's was awarded a patent for "the search and > retrieval of text, pictures, audio, and animated data", clearly ridiculous > to those of us in the industry at the time. By March of 1994 upon challenge > and review the patent was rescinded.
What proportion of US patents are reviewed and rescinded? A tiny proportion. The remainder continue to exert their dampening effects on innovation and the deployment of knowledge. > Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution reads: "To promote the > Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to > Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and > Discoveries;" Sounds like a great idea to me. Let's encourage people to do > useful things and allow them to be rewarded for it! > > This system has worked quite well for the last 200+ years in providing many > of the modern conveniences I enjoy every day. Read George Monbiot's article - as he points out, countries like teh US industrialised because they conveniently ignored patents granted in other countries. I can accept your arguments IF patents were restricted to a single country - what you Americans do in your own country is (mostly) your own business. However, beginning with the Berne Treaty, but made much worse by bilateral trade agreements and treaties, all these incredibly dubious US software and algorithmic patents are now being forced on other countries. Thus, what may or may not be good for US citizens leads to the impoverishment of others. -- Tim C PGP/GnuPG Key 1024D/EAF993D0 available from keyservers everywhere or at http://members.optushome.com.au/tchur/pubkey.asc Key fingerprint = 8C22 BF76 33BA B3B5 1D5B EB37 7891 46A9 EAF9 93D0
