Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Patents and Open Source Biotech

Posted by michael on from the my-new-asian-bird-flu-technique-is-unstoppable dept.

sebFlyte writes "Since Slashdot readers seem to be interesting in the issues and problems surrounding software patents, I thought they might be interested to see that Wired is running an interesting piece on patents in Biotech and the way that they can hold up important research, and how there are clear parallels with the open source software community with the way that advocates of openness are trying to solve these problems."

2 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Simple solution ... by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exclude living systems and their components (e.g., genes) from the patent system. Period. End of story.

    For those who whine, "But then there won't be any incentive to innovate!" ... GMAFB. Innovation in biotech (and in pretty much every technical field) is done by scientists, not moneymen. And the scientists will continue to do their jobs, whether for prestige or a desire to aid their fellow man or just out of sheer intellectual curiosity. Most of them will do it, BTW, in university labs, not corporate "R&D" shops, just the way they always have.

    If the suits want to make a profit, they'll have to work a little harder to figure out how. Watch me weep in sympathy.

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    1. Re:Simple solution ... by pbody · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not that I'm a lover of the patent system, but the scientists do not work independently of the moneymen. Government grants only go so far, but the push to patent is VERY strong in the universities. Which personally sucks for me (my field is theoretical physics), and even though I don't do patents, but I still have to justify the work to the moneymen on a regular basis :( We're (sadly?) way past the times when a person/group who wants to do experimental work can just do their jobs without big $$ support.