Patently Insane
If you’re living in Europe you might have heard of the debate on Software Patents. That is patents regarding software. This essentially equates to patenting abstract ideas, not implementations of these ideas. This is not just dangerous for progress, business and innovation. It’s nonsensical. Take a look at this article from ArsTechnica.
- US 5,796,967 - Presenting Applications in an Interactive Service.
- US 5,442,771 - Storing Data in an Interactive Network.
- US 7,072,849 - Presenting Advertising in an Interactive Service.
- US 5,446,891 - Adjusting Hypertext Links with Weighted User Goals and Activities.
- US 5,319,542 - Ordering Items Using an Electronic Catalogue.
Patently Insane.
Same, and even worse, applies with biological sciences where patents are being given for discovering enzymes. It is interesting because the scientist did not create the enzyme, he just found out what the enzyme does, yet he receives the patent and everyone else is prohibited from using the knowledge of what the enzyme does. In turn this means, of course, that valuable scientific information becomes owned, which should not be the case, imho. If anyone has a patent for an enzyme, that would be the Flying Spaghetti Monster and not some scientist who just stumbled upon it. Drugs are different of course, since someone actually made the drug. Hope i made sense :p Will call you later to catch a movie :D (Europa in the Mall has Guandanamo)