[Patents] Romanian Patent Problem..

[Luuk van Dijk Luuk.van.Dijk@xs4all.nl]

Toast wrote:

[SNIP]
> 
>     Whether the above story is correct, What got my attention
> was the mention that they can't get hold of cheaper drugs
> because of patent laws preventing others from supplying
> the drugs at a price they can afford - so the children
> might die.
> 
>     Now I've mentioned before that patents on software
> might have an adverse affect on essential services such
> as the police, and medical services. Do we really want
> patents that may put life-saving software beyond
> the reach of those who need it most ?

People who are already convinced (like me) will probably agree with
you, but when you enter the debate with proponents of patents,
you better be prepared for an answer to the following statement:

If patent protection were not available to the farmaceutical
industry, these life saving drugs would not even be there.
The competition can make cheaper drugs because they didn't have
to pay for the development.

Now that may be true or not (impossible to judge without a
precise look at their financial administration), but it shows
an essential difference between farmaceutics and software:

The 30.000 european software patents are all so absolutely trivial
that there is no development cost worth mentioning involved.

Luuk 

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Mind over Matter         Mind.over.Matter@xs4all.nl
The Netherlands                tel +31 6 224 97 227
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