U.S. Gets Taste of Own Patent Medicine

cheesedog writes "A few Andean countries have turned the tables on U.S. requests for more forceful expansion of patent law, requesting broader protection for indigenous plants and tribal uses of natural medicines. At first glance this seems like a win for these countries, but it is also a major braodening of the definition of what kinds of ideas can be locked away from the public in government-granted monopolies. As Right to Create notes: 'Let us hope that those involved in these negotiations, particularly those representing us in the U.S., see this for what it is: a de facto demonstration of how ridiculous our intellectual monopoly regime has become, and how insane our demands on the rest of the world's citizens are.'"

Comments

indeed

[Ender Ryan]

Indeed, we are a country of hypocritical nitwits and warmongers. If you think the government is being altruistic when it sends thousands of barely-adults to far off lands to kill and die, just look at the rest of our foreign policy to see just how altruistic "we" are.

Just what the fuck do we even do to better humanity anymore? We bring absolutely nothing to the table anymore. Our largest export these days is violence and ridiculous law and trade practices. Even as an American myself, I can see that the world may be better off without us. This nation is so fucked...

Re:Let's hope for a pony while we're at it...

[1001011010110101]

So, that lab has exclusive rights to the use of the product of those plants, just because it wanted to do a business, instead of the people that discovered and has been using the plant? Lets be fair, the lab didn't want to help anyone with their knowledge except themselves and their shareholders. TFA was about the other side wanting equivalent protection as the one the US requires.Basically, a tit for tat. Actually, all the US wants, as usual, is to force their interests on the rest of the world. They dont give a fuck about what the rest deserves, what's fair, or what they need.

Re:and US is going to say "who cares"

[PhraudulentOne]

Yeah I think everyone should just stop trading with the USA. Just for awhile. I'm sure it would be a humbling experience for the "super power." Then they can see that they rely on others, as others rely on them. I am Canadian, and I really don't know what we get from the USA other than headaches. I admit, I am very ignorant when it comes to what we actually trade with the USA. We should be able to generate our own power, and supply our own resources, so I'm not quite sure why we need the USA so much. I don't like the US corporations cutting down our forests, and I don't like all the rich US tourists coming up here and buying all the water front property, building $300k "cottages" and only using them for 1 week every a year. I don't like the US Air Force telling us that we can't license our radio bands for wireless communication because it interferes with intermittent testing of fighters in our area. I don't like the US government pushing the Canadian government around. What do we really get from the USA?

  This is not intended as flamebait, I just really don't know why we need to trade so much with the USA. Google time.