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Are Patents Impeding Medical Care and Innovation?
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| Pharmaceutical and medical device
| manufacturers argue that the current patent
| system is crucial for stimulating research
| and development (R&D), leading to new
| products that improve medical care. The
| financial return on their investments that
| is afforded by patent protection, they
| claim, is an incentive toward innovation
| and reinvestment into further R&D. But this
| view has been challenged in recent years.
| Many commentators argue that patents are
| stifling biomedical research, for example
| by preventing researchers from accessing
| patented materials or methods they need for
| their studies. Patents have also been
| blamed for impeding medical care by raising
| prices of essential medicines, such as
| antiretroviral drugs, in poor countries.
| This debate examines whether and how
| patents are impeding health care and
| innovation.
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http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000208
The "Productivity" of Patent Brainstorming
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| This abomination is what pro-patent
| libertarians thing is just? They think this is
| compatible with rights and liberty? They think
| this is productive, innovative behavior? Give
| me a break.
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http://www.againstmonopoly.org/index.php?perm=593056000000002211
Recent:
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 technologyâ
| 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
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