[Patents] NYT: US patent expansion under fire in Qatar

[phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)]

NYT

  http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/11/business/11PROP.html
  Suddenly, 'Idea Wars' Take On a New Global Urgency

reports that developping countries are attacking the inflated patent
system of the US at the current WTO assembly.  The article specially
mentions drug and software patents, but it is not quite clear to what
extent this general criticism of the patent system is really on the agenda
in Qatar and to what extent it is just the author's opinion or a
widespread feeling that this issu is "globally urgent".

--------------

As officials from around the world gather to discuss global trade in
Doha, Qatar, this weekend, many are challenging one of the towering
achievements of American industry during its economic boom years: an
unprecedented expansion of intellectual property rights.

Brazil, India and other developing countries argue that America's
devotion to the sanctity of patents puts drugs for AIDS and other
diseases beyond the reach of the poor and costs millions of lives.
And, they charge, Washington showed its hypocrisy last month when it
considered revoking Bayer's patent on the anthrax-fighting drug Cipro
because it was Americans who seemed at risk. Suddenly, the American
stance, that without patent protection there would be no drugs,
seemed hollow.

...

The questions on the table at Doha "Should one corporation have control
over a lifesaving innovation? Would anyone develop new products and
technologies if he were not guaranteed a temporary monopoly on their use?
Can strong protection actually inhibit innovation?" are at the core of a
debate roiling nearly every industry, encompassing areas from Internet
services to scientific research to movie characters.

...

-- 
Hartmut Pilch                                      http://phm.ffii.org/
Schutz der Innovation vor der Patentinflation:   http://swpat.ffii.org/
90000 Stimmen gegen Logikpatente:            http://www.noepatents.org/