[MURG] Uploading IP (intellectual property)

[Eugen Leitl]

On Fri, Feb 27, 2004 at 06:00:56PM -0500, Yan King Yin wrote:

> >It's basic research, and academia has always been based on openness. In fact,
> >I wish neuroscience was more into open access, we sure could use a paper
> >depository.
> 
> That's a misconception, universities are actively pursuing
> IP nowadays. The trend is already very significant.

I'm aware of an unfortunate recent trend in hiding and controlling the flow
of information in a few select fields. To my best knowledge, basic
neuroscience research is not (yet) one of them. Unfortunately, the
publications are still locked away in expensive academic journals. Most
fields have not yet embraced open publication formats.
 
> Secondly, filing patents do not make scientific results
> secret. It's the reverse. The original idea of patenting
> was precisely to foster disclosure of new ideas while at
> the same time protecting the interests of inventors.

The idea of a patent is "we'll hide it until we package information in a
format palatable to patent attorneys, after which we take money from anyone
who wants to use it". More or less, sometimes the latter stage is about
controlling use.

This might be good for industry (though not for the customer), it's a
desaster for science. Where, already, publish-or-perish has lead to omission
of critical information from publication, thus preventing it to be replicated
elsewhere.
 
> >Unfortunately I no longer have spare time to burn for this. Somebody else
> >must do it, we can draft a letter together, though, before spamming the
> >unsuspecting public. It better be low on snake oil content, orelse we achieve
> >the exact opposite.
> 
> The process of establishing IP for uploading need not
> draw a lot of mass media attention at all. It can begin
> in a very low-profile way. The people who need to be
> informed are research institutes, venture capitalists,
> and general investors interested in tech stuff. These
> are people who can readily understand technology.
> 
> A lot of people in the 'general public' don't understand
> genomes and the fact that genes are being patented these
> days. The government, eg patent office etc, have experts
> to regulate these things.

I'm opposed to patenting anything existing I happen to have discovered vs.
patent of an engineered gene with enough novelty to stand apart from stuff
already found in the natural diversity pool.

Patents are frequently problematic, even in domains where they're already 
in wide use.

-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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