[Patents] gouvernement 'buy up' patents or copyright

[Nicolas MONNET nico@monnet.to]

Precisely.

I've read quite a few articles lately about how 3rd world country are
trying to escape political pressure (from the US mostly but EU as well) to
enact patent laws in order to be able to produce cheap enough AIDS
medicine. However, they had to promise to adopt patent treaties in the
future. But what will happen then? Will future drugs be unavailable to
them?

And now, what's the reasoning behind forbidding them from trespassing the
law?

People's lives at stake ... Now I invite you to wonder: if signing
countries of WIPO were at war, would they bother paying patent licensing
fees if they needed one to make a weapon? 

On Sun, 9 Jul 2000, Kristoff Bonne wrote:

|Just a thought:
|In the 'old economy', society (usually the national states) has the right
|to 'buy up' property (land) of individuals if it serves 'the greater good'
|(e.g. to build a railway track).
|This is a generally excepted principle.
|
|So, why not extend this principle to the 'knowledge economy' and give the
|gouvernement (at national and/or European level) the right to 'buy out'
|certain patents or copyrights (at cost-price) to release it to 'the
|public', if it serves the public good. (e.g. things concerning security
|-like encryption principle or software-, or where the existence of patents
|stops further research in a certain domain, ...).
|
|But, I guess this is not a very new idea and that other people have
|already thought of this, but shouldn't this become a general
|excepted principle too.
|
|Just my 2 eurocents of thoughts.
|
|
|Cheerio! Kr. Bonne.
|
|*** catch-frase of the week:
|The only remedy against too-strong multinationals, are equally strong
|governements and under equally strong democratic control.
|***