We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won

Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won by thayne on Monday November 04, 2019 @11:58PM (#21449749)

They also cause problems for a lot more than software too. I'm not 100% sure that (non-software) patents should be completely abolished, but as just one example of another industry that is harmed by patents, in the medical industry, there is very little incentive to research non-patentable treatments, because getting a monopoly from a patent is so much more profitable. The other argument is that patents provide considerable incentives for certain kinds of medical research. I'm not sure what the solution is there, but I do know the current system is very flawed.

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Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won by yoz-y on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @12:13AM (#21449823)

Weren’t patents initially created for the pharmaceutical industry? The issue being that research is so prohibitively expensive that if you can’t benefit from being first then you are screwed?

Another similar industry is aero space but they mostly work by secrecy. This is not viable in pharma where I believe more transparency is required for safety.

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Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won by yxhuvud on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @12:52AM (#21450007)

No, patents was not created for the pharma industry. It is however the industry which would be the most disrupted by a patent abolishment. They would need a new government sponsored model to replace the current one. This to offset the costs that medical trial requirements create, which is the main cost of developing new medicines.

If we want safe meds we need to pay for the safety somehow. But that price needn't affect every other industry.

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Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won by plmu on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @10:25AM (#21453152)

Indeed, and a government regulated system would be much fairer for everyone. In most western societies (the US may be a partial exception) we don't want to see people dying in the streets, therefore there is universal basic healthcare for everyone in every civilized country.

Therefore, it would be much better to fund it like, e.g., high energy physics research.

Do the research funded by governments, and the pure production of patent-free medicine can be done by the industry who, compete on price at a set and defined quality.

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Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won by function_seven on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @12:42AM (#21449959)

Patents predate the pharmaceutical industry by a few centuries. Even back then, I doubt the initial motivation for government-issued monopolies was to advance the apothecary industry.

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Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won by logfromblammo on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @10:28AM (#21453185)

The US switched over from NTSC to ASTC broadcast television in 2009. To build an ASTC digital television or converter box, you basically have to be in the MPEG LA patent pool, or the members can bankrupt you with licensing fees if you attempt to comply with the standard.

Edit: acronym typo. Thanks mnw21cam.

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Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won by mnw21cam on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @10:42AM (#21453328)

NSTC -> NTSC. There's an easy to remember mnemonic. Never Twice the Same Colour.

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Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won by rhinoceraptor on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @04:30PM (#21456912)

We also have really simple prevention/treatment steps for basically all chronic disease: sleep for eight hours every night, replace sugar with vegetables, and get outside and exercise.

If everyone did that, we wouldn't need all these fancy new drugs.

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Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won by thayne on Wednesday November 06, 2019 @01:29AM (#21460200)

Are you seriously suggesting that people with serious genetic disorders (physical or mental) should just make better lifestyle choices, and they'll get better?

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