Patent Nonsense

ziriyab writes: "This article from The Guardian, after a few paragraphs of corporation bashing, gives an interesting history of two countries (Switzerland and the Netherlands) who flourished without IP laws. The article, while not necessarily suggesting that the abandonment of patent protection is an essential precondition for development, seems to indicate that it can, in the right circumstances, be an effective tool."

Comments

Switzerland, bah

[tiltowait]

"In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock."
- Orson Welles (1915-1985)

Re:Switzerland, bah

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget that when the Knights Templar founded Switzerland, they also began their quest to control the world, eventually controlling the papal seat, the world economy via the swiss bank and, of course, world governments by secretly being the true creators of the NWO. Or something. Grumble.

Re:Switzerland, bah

[Captain Large Face]

It's a good quote, but I can't believe it took 70 years for him to come up with it.

Slashdot Reply Button Patent (pending)

[snowpuppy]

I can't wait for my Slashdot Reply Button
"One-Click Patent" gets approved.

Then you will all have to pay me to reply to these messages.

Sweet...

Sean
--
perl -e 'print pack("H*","736e6f77646f6740626967666f6f742e636f6d0 a")'

Re:Careful...

[Mr Windows]

You can't be suggesting that it's the rich who make the laws, and the poor that have to obey them?

\end{sarcasm}

But Einstein was a swiss patent clerk

[Tax Boy]

Switzerland has no IP laws? But what about the smartest patent clerk ever?

poor guy would be unemployed today.

Re:But Einstein was a swiss patent clerk

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe it just explains why he had enough spare time at work to figure out relativity?