[Cdn-DMCA] JPEG Extinct? Send as input to Innovation Strategy!!

[Russell McOrmond]

On Tue, 30 Jul 2002, Kristofer Coward wrote:

> You have to remember that not all markets have low barriers to entry
> (outside of 'IP'). An especially important example would be the market
> for pharmaceuticals and medical devices. In the interest of protecting
> public safety, regulatory obstacles are introduced that make the
> process of bringing a medical innovation to market costly enough to
> justify patent protection while those costs are recovered.

  You may be surprised at how minimal these obstacles are compared to what 
you would desire from a public safety standpoint.  My father-in-law is a 
retired scientist from Health Canada, and he could tell you many horror 
stories.

> That said, there are definitely areas in which patents _are_ doing more
> harm than good.


Not to swing too far off topic, but ;-)

  I believe the pharmachemical industry is another example where it is
doing more harm than good.  Our drug-focused "just-in-time Sick Care
System" has not been able to become a preventative-focused "health care
system" partly because of the funding issues with proprietary drugs.


  I happen to believe (again without adequate scientific proof as the
information isn't available to me) that we (as taxpayers) would save money
in our "Health Care" system if instead of paying outrageous fees for
pharmacare, that government directly funded primary research.  This
research would then have a "public license" that allowed for the full use
of this information by the generic drug industry.

  Those who want to have a monopoly on a derivative drug could then pay
royalty fees to the government, rather than the other way around after the
government gave away its research to the private sector!

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
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