Ways out of Darkness – Abolishing Patents
I not only wrote a lot on copyrights, but also on patents:
- A (Patent-)Law to promote the welfare of Lawyers Rent-seeking behaviour among patent lawyers.
- Patents kill Innovation The patent-system achieves in nearly all cases the opposite of what it was supposed to.
- Intellectual “Property” and other contradictions Rhetoric of proponents of monopolies.
- Sue Everyone for your genetic pollution How patents in pharmacy and biochemistry are abused.
In contrast to copyrights, in which interests of all involved parties have to be carefully balanced, with patents the case is very clear cut: Nearly everyone, including companies holding a lot of patents, are victims of the system. The only people profiting are lawyers and patent-trolls. The only exception among the patent-holders are some of the pharmacy- and biochemistry companies: They’re perpetrators, and the victims are everyone else.
the only logical course of action
You can’t sustain a system which funnels 20% of all production costs into the legal system.
The state and its bodies are prohibited from enacting laws allowing temporary or perpetual monopolies on ideas, inventions and innovations.
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is a somewhat special case, since there the costs associated from patent licenses are actually higher than the legal costs. Also, development costs are very high, mostly due to required tests mandated by the gouvernments. On the other hand, pharmacy companies are among the worst offenders of abusing their monopolies; thus a “special patent law” only for pharmacy and biochemistry would not be warranted.
However, since patents somehow alleviate for costs mandated by gouvernment, it seems prudent that the costs for tests are in turn taken over or subsidied by gouvernment. At least in the initial phase.