Re:Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
by rayiner on Thursday July 02, 2015 @11:39AM
(#9819596)
I "license" the apartment I live in, and the state has elaborate enforcement mechanisms for kicking me out when I breach the terms of the license.
Independent invention is definitely a distinguishing characteristic, and the shakiest part of the rationale for patents. IMHO, independent invention should be a defense to patent infringement. That said, it's not really implicated in the drug industry, where the folks doing the copying don't have the resources to invent and test the drugs independently.
Re:Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
by dragonwriter on Thursday July 02, 2015 @12:21AM
(#9816826)
> I still feel that there's a difference between physical property and "intellectual property" - probably because "intellectual property" is mostly licensed.
Conditional, restricted-use-specific licensing of real and tangible personal property is common.
The other thing about "intellectual property" is the distinct possibility of independent invention. Even if we disallow my use of my own capital hardware to make a duplicate via some state financed mechanism, there's still a very real possibility that someone else also invented the "intellectual property" in question. Several people invented the steam engine. Several people invented the telegraph, at more or less the same time. Someone in the Bronze age seems to have invented safety pins. Algorithms get independently discovered all the time - see KMP string matching for a classic, but there's certainly a lot of others. A bunch of people discovered continuations at different times. How do we stretch the idea of property to cover all this? This seems like it will lead to trouble.