[MURG] MU intellectual property

[Yan King Yin]

From: "Joseph J. Strout" <joe at strout.net>

>>MU requires a huge neuroscience knowledgebase. We
>>need researchers to work out a lot of mechanisms
>>and pathways.
>>
>>  So we need to turn these research
>>results into IP.
>
>False.  Neuroscience is one of the biggest areas of research already, 
>with hundreds of millions of dollars of research funds spent 
>annually.  Some of this is done for commercial R&D, but most of it is 
>done just for basic research.

I'm sure there're a lot of younger researchers waiting to
get into research positions or applying for grants. I doubt if
'sufficient funding' really exist in this world at this
time. More funding will certainly help.

>>  Unfortunately patents only last
>>for 20 years. Once published, the results become
>>public.
>
>Good thing, too.  20 years is plenty of time to make it worthwhile 
>for a company to commercialize an invention; after that, it should 
>become public so that others can improve on it.

A lot of research don't end up in commercialization. My
impression is that it is very rare in neuroscience.
Also, the proposal does not interfere with other forms of
commercialization besides MU.

>>So my suggestion is to start a research consortium
>>and have researchers send the results to us first,
>>and then we'll provide channels for publication in
>>which we include restrictions on its use for MU
>>purposes. This is quite reasonable because there
>>could be a whole lot of other applications for those
>>research results. In this way we'll be able to
>>establish IP beyond the 20-year limit.
>
>Why would we want to do any of that?  Actually, it goes both ways: 
>why would we want this, and why would a researcher want it?  If I 
>were still doing neuroscience research (which admittedly I'm not), 
>I'd much rather get my paper published in Science or a prestigious 
>neuro journal than some obscure journal with weird IP rules.

Well, obviously we got to pay the researchers for
taking the trouble to go this route. Then we will
try to relay the publication to existing journals
or whatever. (We're not trying to undermine them,
but their mode of operation may need to change a
bit to accomodate this, which I think is worth the
trouble. This will be solving a huge problem.)

Secondly the question is where do this money come
from. I'd say this would be in the form of tokens
for future MU revenues, which I've explained before
but I'll develop it further in a while.

The 3rd problem is whether we'll need to consolidate
the whole business of MU into one big monopoly, which will
be legally very problematic. But I think there's a way to
get around that too. What is needed is a research consortium
that cater to several MU companies (say when Moore's law
gets close to human level), thus maintainly diversity which
is very important.

>My $0.02,
Thanks ;) I'm meeting some lawyers next week and will
ask them if the legal aspects are feasible...

YKY


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