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

and US is going to say "who cares"

[falcon5768]

Seriously, you think that the US is going to have a moral change of heart when we are the same people who for years placed our national seaboarder miles out into the atlantic and contested anyone who got inside of it while at the same time following the 3 mile rule for every other country despite protests from those companys.

The US could give two shits sadly.

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

[argStyopa]

You do know that pretty much every country does the same thing, advocating one set of limits for itself while following another for everyone else, generally resorting to narrow, sometimes hypocritical definitions, depending on their own interests?

Please look at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/field s/2070.html and let me know how many of the open, standing disputes between states have to do with maritime limits? Or maybe http://www.oceanlaw.net/netpath/page8-mb2.htm ?

Not to interrupt your little Anti-American rant, I mean, it's so trendy nowadays. Self-loathing is so satisfying, it's like moral masochism. It's like self-righteousness in a can!

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

[lintocs]

How on earth did a reference to maritime law warrant an "insightful" mod? Particularly an incorrect reference? The 1994 Law of the Sea secures territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, not three. There is an additional cause to allow an area of influence of an additional 12 nautical miles, for law/customs/immigration enforcement.

Screw you, moderator scum!

WRITE TO POLITICIANS

[olddotter]

Sadly I don't expect the US to make any useful or moral decisions. That is unless a bunch of congressmen (and women) think they will be voted out of office over the issue!

Re:indeed

[iggymanz]

nothing to the table? What would the middle east or China be like, where would they be, without western money? Better yet, where will the arab lands be when the world moves on to alternate energy sources. Answer: They will be primative shit holes (or more accurately. even more primative shitholes), with their minds and bodies imprisoned.. At least those in Iraq have a chance to build a better government for themselves (compared to dictatorship they had). You also seem to think that those who choose to be a soldier, a warrior, for a living should be outraged they might be asked to go and fight & risk death at a young age somewhere. Soldiers fight, kill and destroy stuff, it's in the job description and company policy handbook.

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

[lambadomy]

I think the point is that they're both villains. Just because someone knows to chew some indigenous bark or eat a potato to cure some ill doesn't mean they should get some rights to the cures created from knowledge they already had - something tells me that knowledge is kind of old. But the issue is whether or not some company that comes in and extracts the compound and either synthesizes it or has an efficient means of extraction should be able to patent the compound itself either. And the answer is no, no one should have a patent on the compound, not peru or the company. They can have a patent on their extraction or synthesis process, assuming it is novel, but anyone who wants to come up with a different way to make this compound should be able to.

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

[ceoyoyo]

Kind of like patenting genetic sequences?

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

[Ironsides]

How's this (somewhat) logical reason then? Prior Art. The knowledge has existed for thousands of years. They didn't just figure out what it was for, it's been known for a long time. At least with genes, they are recently figuring out what does what.