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Oblivious Supreme Court poised to legalize medical patents

arstechnica.com

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Re: Oblivious Supreme Court poised to legalize medical patents

#3

Post by marshray »

I wonder if they would consider CPR to be patentable.

Truly Dr. Heimlich missed an opportunity when he failed to patent his "trademark" maneuver.

In the future, perhaps we'll be expected to wear bracelets (or microchips) that tell the paramedics on which life-saving techniques we're up-to-date on our licensing payments.

Re: Oblivious Supreme Court poised to legalize medical patents

#6

Post by acslater00 »

Honestly, this is probably the best possible thing.

The reality is that under the Patent Act, things which are not fundamentally "inventions" -- such as software algorithms, genes, and in this case, data correlations -- can legally be granted patents. This is a problem with the Act, not with any given court's interpretation of it, and that is what needs to change.

I can think of no better way to build political support for a major patent reform initiative than a constant stream of human-interest pieces on 60 Minutes where a handsome doctor earnestly explains that he couldn't save Bobby because of a patent claim from some faceless corporate troll.

Software is abstract and complicated. Saving Bobby is emotional and simple. If patents start to impact medicine the way they've impacted software development, they're not going to last very long in their current form.

Re: Oblivious Supreme Court poised to legalize medical patents

#9

Post by Mediocrity »

acslater00 wrote: post #6

Honestly, this is probably the best possible thing. The reality is that under the Patent Act, things which are not fundamentally "inventions" -- such as software algorithms, genes, and in this case, data correlations -- can legally be granted patents. This is a problem with the Act, not with any given court's interpretation of it, and that is what needs to change. I can think of no better way to build political suppo…

This is true.

And because of the implications of what you just said above. I'll leave it at that.

EDIT: In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have ended the post in that way. Instead, I'll acknowledge that this solution to silly patents is certainly viable. But that at the same time calling it "The best possible thing" seems somewhat narrow in the grand scheme of things. After all, it DOES require people to die to be workable.

Re: Oblivious Supreme Court poised to legalize medical patents

#10

Post by gwright »

acslater00 wrote: post #6

Honestly, this is probably the best possible thing. The reality is that under the Patent Act, things which are not fundamentally "inventions" -- such as software algorithms, genes, and in this case, data correlations -- can legally be granted patents. This is a problem with the Act, not with any given court's interpretation of it, and that is what needs to change. I can think of no better way to build political suppo…

Thank you for pointing out the primary culprit here--Congress and its lame legislation in this area.

The headline's use of 'legalize' only perpetuates the confusion surrounding Supreme Court decisions. It is the underlying legislation that gives life to the patent claim not the fact that the Court upholds patents that succesfully adhere to a misguided law.

Ambiguous or otherwise weak legislation leaves the court in a no-win situation of shaping public policy via judicial opinions.

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