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Do Patents Encourage or Hinder Innovation? The Case of the Steam Engine
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| Today one of the most controversial issues in economic policy is that of
| patent law. Is a patent just an extension of property rights to the realm of
| ideas? Or is it an unwarranted interference by the government into the rights
| of individuals who have purchased goods and services to use them as they see
| fit? Should the Western system of patents be extended worldwide? Or should we
| get rid of patents entirely? Is the patent system responsible for modern
| miracle drugs? Or is it to blame for the millions dying of HIV in Africa? Do
| patents lead to greater innovation and economic growth? Or do they kill the
| goose that lays the golden egg?
|
| [...]
|
| Even the modern controversy over the current effort of the Free Software
| Foundation to limit software patents through the General Public License
| Version 3 finds reflection in the earlier Cornwall experience. Familiar with
| the negative impact of the Watt patents on innovation, Cornwall mine
| engineers were reluctant to patent their inventions. From 1781 to 1852
| Cornish residents took out a grand total of 15 patents on steam technology—
| against 994 patents on steam technology in all of England during that period.
| Will it surprise you to learn that the area with the fewest patents also was
| the area that contributed the most to the innovation and development of steam
| technology?
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http://www.fee.org/publications/the-freeman/article.asp?aid=8370
With US Patent Overhaul Dead, Agencies Ponder Changes As Industry Debates Role
Of ‘Trolls’
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| Cisco Vice President Mallun Yen said that the number of patent lawsuits
| against the company has quadrupled over the past five years. “The patent
| system overvalues patents, particularly weak ones, and thereby suppresses
| innovation,” she said.
|
| Yen disagreed with Peter N Detkin, founder and vice chairman of Intellectual
| Ventures, who attempted to recast the patent debate as one between big
| players, like Cisco and IBM, against individual inventors.
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http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1352
So Microsoft 'pioneered' massive trolling?
Recent:
Economist Critic of Software Patents gets Nobel Prize
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| The FFII congratulates Eric S. Maskin, an economist who has long criticised
| the patenting of software, for receiving the 2007 Nobel Prize for Economics.
| Prof. Maskin and two colleagues receive the Prize for research into the
| optimal design of economic mechanisms. By applying his theory to the IT
| sector, Maskin demonstrated "that in such a dynamic industry, patent
| protection may reduce overall innovation and welfare."
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http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/Economist_Critic_of_Software_Patents_gets_Nobel_Prize
Intellectual Property Regime Stifles Science and Innovation, Nobel Laureates
Say
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| Patent monopolies are believed to drive innovation but they actually impede
| the pace of science and innovation, Stiglitz said. The current “patent
| thicket,” in which anyone who writes a successful software programme is sued
| for alleged patent infringement, highlights the current IP system’s failure
| to encourage innovation, he said.
|
| Another problem is that the social returns from innovation do not accord with
| the private returns associated with the patent system, Stiglitz said. The
| marginal benefit from innovation is that an idea may become available sooner
| than it might have. But the person who secures the patent on it wins a
| long-term monopoly, creating a gap between private and social returns.
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http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1129
ICC calls on business to understand that IP is now a major political issue
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| That said, there are a number of companies where there is IP awareness. The
| problem here though is that they see the IP system in so many different ways
| and want very different things from it. The recent Patent Reform Act debate
| in the US showed this very clearly. And what it also demonstrated is that
| when IP owners fight among themselves, it leaves very big spaces for people
| with a general anti-IP message to exploit; something that harms all rights
| owners, no matter what side of a specific argument they are on. The same
| thing happened in Europe with regard to the CII Directive and could well
| happen again if there is ever any political agreement on the Community patent
| and the European patent court.
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http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=e4431e82-a26f-48a9-81ef-b5d37edbd39c
$10K For Microsoft's Club Dues
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| After Microsoft went public with its patent licensing specs the other day, I
| took a closer look at the agreements you have to sign -- and the cash you
| have to fork over. To license patents from any one Microsoft product, you
| need to pay $10,000 up front, no questions asked, on top of per-copy-sold
| duties for your product.
|
| It's about what I expected from Microsoft. Good on them that they allow you
| to peruse and make use of the protocols without charge if you just want to
| work with them privately and not develop something that's going to be
| released to others. But everything outside of that requires payment -- and
| that $10K entry dues per Microsoft product is a great way to keep all of the
| noncommercial open source players out of the game.
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http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/10k_for_microso.html
WIPO patent committee embarks on positive agenda
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| The fact that the WIPO patent committee has decided to request the
| International Bureau studies on “exceptions from patentable subject matter
| and limitations to the rights, inter alia research exemption and compulsory
| licenses” and “patents and standards” is testament that the WIPO of 2008 is
| not the WIPO that invoked “Intellectual Property as a Power tool for
| Development”.
|
| Here below is the Annex to the Summary by the Chair which lists the eighteen
| non-exhaustive list of issues for further elaboration and discussion in the
| future. This list includes such topics as “Economic impact of the patent
| system, Alternative models for innovation, Patents and health (including
| exhaustion, the Doha Declaration and other WTO instruments, patent
| landscaping) and Relation of patents with other public policy issues.”
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http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=39&p=124
Open Parliament
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| In private a government delegate compared
| Microsoft's public affairs methods with the scientology cult.
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http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-54634/open-parliament
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