Patents

[Decessus]

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case involving the patenting of the link between homocysteine and B-12 deficiency.

 

For the people who do scientific research, do you find your work being hindered substantially due to the threat of being sued over patent violations?

 

According to this 20 percent of the human genome is now privately owned.

 

Do you feel that the current patent system is holding back the amount of scientific discoveries that could be made?

[swansont]

PS: Is there a way to make the URL appear as a couple of words instead of the entire address? In much the same way that you would use the a href tag if you could use HTML.

 

Put the words you want inside the url tags.

 

Like this: link

 

(hit "quote" and you'll see how it looks)

[herpguy]

SFN Home Page. Like that? All you have to do type the words you want, highlight them, and then click the hyperlink button. Type in the URL, click OK and you're all set.

 

 

Anyway, I think that patenting things like inventions is perfectly fine, but things like you mentioned? That may hold back some great discoveries, or even the education of others. IMO, it is stupid and should not be like this.

[RyanJ]

On Tuesday' date=' the Supreme Court will hear a case involving the patenting of the link between homocysteine and B-12 deficiency.

 

For the people who do scientific research, do you find your work being hindered substantially due to the threat of being sued over patent violations?

 

According to http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/opinion/19crichton.

html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=9addb806498d2739&ex=1300424400&

partner=rssnyt&emc=rss 20 percent of the human genome is now privately owned.

 

Do you feel that the current patent system is holding back the amount of scientific discoveries that could be made?

 

Patents hold back process and should just be ignored. Some diots claimed the patent for 2 human genes so their company alone could develop and sell the products that would affect it.

 

like I said patents are a waste of time and really bug me at times.

 

PS: Is there a way to make the URL appear as a couple of words instead of the entire address? In much the same way that you would use the a href tag if you could use HTML.

 

Yes:

 

 

Display text

 

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[herpguy]

I take back some of what I said. I think that patenting inventions like the jet airplane is fine. But patenting something like the jet engine is not. Why? Because there's a chance you will need that engine for something else that could turn out to be very important.

[RyanJ]

I take back some of what I said. I think that patenting inventions like the jet airplane is fine. But patenting something like the jet engine is not. Why? Because there's a chance you will need that engine for something else that could turn out to be very important.

 

Whats the point? There should be no patents period. All they are designed to do is stop people using potentially useful ideas intheir own projects.

 

I can think of no good reason for a patent at all, they should all be nulled and voided.

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[herpguy]

Whats the point? There should be no patents period. All they are designed to do is stop people using potentially useful ideas intheir own projects.

 

I can think of no good reason for a patent at all' date=' they should all be nulled and voided.

[/quote']

Well, I guess I'm a bit more selfish than you...

 

If I invented something that I could sell, and if it sold greatly, I wouldn't want someone to make their own and sell it. However, like I said, if I created a device like an everlasting battery for a watch, I wouldn't mind if people used it for their own inventions.

[Decessus]

Whats the point? There should be no patents period. All they are designed to do is stop people using potentially useful ideas intheir own projects.

 

I can think of no good reason for a patent at all' date=' they should all be nulled and voided.

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones[/quote']

 

I can understand the reason why patents were created in the first place. If you worked hard to create something, it wouldn't be fair for someone else to come along and make a profit off of your hard work.

[prion]

major misconception: PATENTS DO NOT EQUAL OWNERSHIP. None of the human genome is privately "owned". But companies have taken out patents on applications relating to certain bits. For example a company took out patents to do with genes related to familial breast cancer. They don't own those genes any more than I do. What the patent means in that case is that only they have the right to develop, market and license tests which detect whether people have mutations in those genes. So it makes no difference if the patent is applied to a 'natural' thing, they certainly don't own it, they've just thought of a new use for it.

 

Actually that's the second major misconception: a patent relates to an application of something, not the thing itself. You can't just say "I spotted that gene first". You have to say, "I've spotted that mutations in this gene might cause cancer and I reserve the right to test for that and develop treatments based on that".

 

In my line of work, the main effect of patents is that newly-developed technologies that everyone wants cost a fortune. But then those things would never be developed if the company didn't (1) put massive investment in and (2) have some way of knowing that other people wouldn't be able to just copy their finished product and make loads of money with no investment. That's what the patent is for.

 

Edit: by the way Decessus - what exactly does the homocysteine/B12 patent involve? Are they patenting the basis for a potential treatment? They can't patent a "link" between two things. In any case the reasons for the link are well-known (i.e. public domain). I'm guessing they must have found some new mechanism behind it or some new possible way to treat it?

 

Edit2: Hmm they are implying what you said in the article you linked to. Either the courts have gone totally insane or the article is misleading. It's public domain information! I've just had a lecture on B12 deficiency and homocysteine from a national expert (UK) and no mention was made of royalties. Mind you the article was written by Michael Crichton, don't get me started on prions and The Lost World...