Patent consultants, the public good, and altruism.

[Russell McOrmond <russell@flora.ca>]

On Mon, 28 Apr 2003, Gilman Research Services wrote:

> Am I to assume the Guillaume believes that those who research patents,
> like myself, are part of the "egocentric and greedy lobbyists" groups
> who benefit from poorly drafted and researched patent applications?

  Are you an "egocentric and greedy lobbyist"?  No way for me to know.

  Do you (and Greg, and others) financially "benefit from poorly drafted 
and researched patent applications"?  Obviously.


  Those who financially benefit from a situation are going to be hard to 
believe they are working to help change the very thing they are 
benefitting from.   Some problems with patents relate to quality, some 
relate to scope, and some whether certain subject matter has a public 
policy benefit to being patentable at all (information process patents).

  Whether you are trying to be altruistic in helping us solve these
problems, it is still a fact that you and others receive benefit from
these problems.  Many are willing to take on large personal sacrifices for 
the public good -- but the more benefit someone receives from something 
that is not in the public interest, the harder it is to believe that this 
is the case.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 Any 'hardware assist' for communications, whether it be eye-glasses, 
 VCR's, or personal computers, must be under the control of the citizen 
 and not a third party.   -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/