Russia Claims IP Rights In Manufacture of AK-47

Daniel Dvorkin writes "In the latest example of over-the-top intellectual property demands, Russia wants licensing fees for the production of AK-47s. According to first deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov, the unlicensed production of Kalashnikovs (which have been around in very nearly their current form for 60 years) in ex-Soviet Bloc countries is 'intellectual piracy.' A giant but declining power starts demanding royalties on commonly used methods and materials that are widely understood, well known, and by any reasonable standard have long been in the public domain — does this sound familiar?" Wikipedia notes that the Izhevsk Machine Tool Factory in Russia obtained a patent on the manufacture of the AK-47 in 1999.

Comments

Re:Polonium patent?

[yada21]

The AK-47 is just a rip-off of the German MP44.

Re:Expired?

[delirium of disorder]

Your argument is that because dictators are good at oppressing people and some people will always try to be dictators, that therefore we must support dictatorship? You're a fucking asshole and if I ever encounter you in a revolutionary situation, I will fucking kill you and anyone else in your fascist/Stalinist/Christian/whatever army.

Look, I have no idea whether or not we can create a perfect egalitarian society. I just know that fighting oppression will always make our society better.

Re:Pay or Die!

[IgnoramusMaximus]

What's scary, exactly, about a system which has as its sole function the reduction in effectiveness of the use of unmanned offensive weapons of mass destruction? The only Russian "right" threatened by missile defenses is the "right" to engage in nuclear blackmail.

You are incorrect. If the defense shield proves effective on a large scale, then it essentially removes the Russian portion of the nuclear "detterent" from the equation. In essence it would negate all of the Russian ICBMs while at the same time leaving all of the US ones fully functional. The Russians see this as a two step strategy: move #1 by the US is the negation of Russian ICBMs via the defense shield and move #2 would be an all-out first-strike with no possibility of retaliation by the Russians and thus the final ascention of the 1000 year USian Reich to rule unchallenged. Or something along these lines.

The Chinese have similiar feelings about the defense shield and consider themselves to be the next target, right after the Russians.

Note that an actual attack is not really necessary, the defense shield is essentially equivalent to US putting a loaded pistol to the Russian or Chinese heads and thus permanently enslaving them without actually having to resort to firing the nukes.

This of course assumes that the shield is very effective on a large sacle (which is not likely to occur soon) but this is an actual stated goal of the companies making it and the wet dream of the generals.

That is why you hear all that chest-beating about new "missile-shield proof" ICBMs the Russians are frantically developing.

So in the long term the missile shield is anything but a purely "defensive" weapon, it has a very significant strategic, offensive connotations.

Re:Pay or Die!

[Zeinfeld]

You sure that this idea would work any better than suing Smith&Wesson for deaths caused by their guns?

Sure, Russia is asserting a moral claim here, not a legal one. There is an international system of patent law, it does not recognize any valid claim 60 years after first production.

Pointing out that the act of making firearms is itself immoral, and that the AK-47 in particular has caused as many deaths as Hitler or Stalin is a pretty good way to end the conversation.