[BiO BB] Bioinformatics and Intellectual Property Rights

Tarun Bansal libra_tarun895 at yahoo.com
Fri Sep 12 04:17:29 EDT 2008


Dear Krishna Mohan,

I would like to advise you to please do an in-depth research before basing your opinion on just one or two articles.

To let you know the concept behind patent system, it is actually designed to foster innovation rather than suppressing it. Think from a business (or rather just human) perspective that why a pharma/ bio company (or any investor)  will invest millions and billions in research to design a drug for a disease, if they know that they are going to loose it to the competition in the end. 

You might be right in saying that its makes drugs expensive, but have you ever thought that without the patent protection system in place, these drugs would not have been discovered at the first place. Please note that no one here including Bio/pharma companies are there to do any social service.

Further, if there was no patent system, most of the technological advancements would never have been published and came to public domain for further research, as greedy and opportunistic human minds would then have just kept them as a trade secret rendering future research and development impossible. This can further be visualized based on the fact that 80% of the total technical data is never published anywhere else but in patents.

When you say rich becomes richer and poor becomes poorer, it clearly reflects your lack of knowledge of the patent system. The patent system is not for any special economic class but is for creative and innovative people. Rather patent system helps poor but creative and innovative people becoming rich if they are aware and proactive in protecting their innovations. Until you secure patent rights on your invention, it becomes inpossible to find a funding partner leading to tragic end of the research. 

However, I do agree that patent system has not evolved the way it should have been and there are many changes necessary to make it truly innovation friendly. There are still possibilities of misuing the system and authorities should work towards plugging these loop holes.

This has now turned in to a nice discussion, and I would like to invite others to contribute their thoughts on this matter.

Best regards,
Tarun



----- Original Message ----
From: km <srikrishnamohan at gmail.com>
To: General Forum at Bioinformatics.Org <bbb at bioinformatics.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 1:52:01 PM
Subject: Re: [BiO BB] Bioinformatics and Intellectual Property Rights

Hi,

I have some comments in general.
True potential of research does not mean one has a bunch of patents
(restrictive) to push others to stone age.
Patent system is actually a big stumble to discovery. It is a relic/fossil
of human greed and opportunism -  a state where rich become even rich and
poor become even poor. It is created to make products(drugs etc...) of
inventions inaccessible to the poor.
Moreover IPR is archaic and has not evolved.
I would also like u to note that most software developed in bioinformatics
is in opensource domain with a  "no-no" to software patents.

Please follow the  link for this useless patent regime.
http://www.physorg.com/news140178906.html


HTH
KM

On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 12:19 PM, Tarun Bansal <libra_tarun895 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
>
> I was just wondering if Bioinformatics professionals really care about
> securing the IP rights for their inventions?
>
> With this assumptions in mind, my company 'Sagacious Research' was planning
> to develop certain modules on importance of IPR (specially patents) for
> Bioinfo professional (highlighting exceptions).
>
> Please feel free to contribute any information to the modules and indicate
> what would you like to see in these modules.Also, if you are already aware
> of certain similar modules do let me know.
>
> Further, in case you want any economical patent research done (including
> patent preparation, searching, etc), you can feel free to contact me at this
> email ID. I have an extensive experience of patent research in
> Bioinformatics domain and have helped many bioinfo professionals in
> realizing the true potential of their research.
>
> Best regards,
> Tarun
> Director, Product Development
> Sagacious Research
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> BBB mailing list
> BBB at bioinformatics.org
> http://www.bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/bbb
>
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