Marc Andelman wrote:
? My original post was about an interesting editorial,or rather, an
> actual research article in May 1 Science that makes a very good case
> why academic patents will totally screw up the industrial job market for
> scientists by making industrial R&D unprofitable. .. I think everyone should be extremely concerned
> about this issue, ..
>> Regards,
>> Marc Andelman
Actually, you are quite right about the issue of how focused interest in
Patents, and over patenting, can muck up the progress in a field.
The issue of patents in software raised the same issues -- how trivial
patents (sometimes "invented after the fact") raised issues of grave
concern.
I don't know the issues, but the parallels might be of interest.
It isn't just the patenting inventors involved, it is the overhead
represented by the administrators and legal staff that add complexity.
Since the software patent craze may have began a few years ahead of the
biotech phase, perhaps there are some clues there as to what will happen
-- it might die a semi-natural death -- and how to develop work-arounds.
There are other fields that have faced issues of patents and explosions
of information that could also have vital background that relates. I
don't think that it is a totally _new_ issue, but a variation on what
has happened before.
--
I use stealth Java in my sig file.
It's there, but no one can detect it.
