Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Moral and Legal
Patent Quandries
In a message dated 2/15/2006 5:25:54 AM US
Eastern Standard Time, loneroc@mwt.net
writes:
The patenting process has led, in many cases, to massive
private enrichment (both corporate and academic) at the expense of the
public pocketbook and it is part of a system that has resulted in an
impoverishment of agricultural diversity rather than the reverse.
Seems to me that the problem of funding such worthwhile horticultural
endeavors is to provide adequate funds for institutions doing the
work. If political forces whose ideological bent to privatize the
entire public realm refuse to pony up the dough, then the answer is to
vote 'em out of office, rather than to depend on the 'incentive' of
patent protection.
Dear Steve,
I find your view
and mine nearly 180 degrees out of phase. Although I totally agree on the
description on Bill Gates as a robber baron. I believe his wealth is based
more on immoral business practices slamming the door on competition rather
than is patents.
In 1991 a group of NAFEX members went on a Hort
exchange agreement to the Soviet Union. We saw a system you describe above
which was the worlds largest experiment in socialism. It failed. There all
research was funded by the Gov. No plant patents were issued. All material
bred and developed was public domain. My friend, it was a miserable failure in
total. Yes, we did see large huge plant repositories like 1,500 grape
varieties in a single vineyard at one research station, gov funded. Large
breeding programs, estimate 6,000 Prunus in one breeding plot, Gov. funded.
There profit was a dirty word and a crime. One couldn't even legally
sell the shirt off ones back. You could give it away, but to sell it could
land one in jail. Certainly the KGB (was more than just a spy network) could
send you back to attend the Scientific Communism class, and yes there was such
a class mandatory in collage. This was told to me by a Russian immigrant who
is now a US citizen employed by a US petrochemical company. He loves this
country that issues patents.
I'm not trying to change your mind, just
relaying my point of view and part of the basis upon which it is based.
Jerry Lehman
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Re: [NAFEX] Moral and Legal Patent Quandries
, (continued)