71–75 of 75 posts
Is there anything redeeming about “for profit” prison? At its most fundamental, it has no incentive to actually rehabilitate
You can legally own slaves, using the loophole in 13th Ammendment. /s
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How much of that private spending went to $600k/yr lawyers rather than $60k/yr scientists? How much of the public spending went to $60k/yr scientists rather than $600k/yr lawyers?
Afaik R&D spending really only means actual science - at least that's how R&D spending is defined for tax break purposes, so I'd imagine the stats are using the same definition.
Whenever I hear about a pharma company getting held accountable, it's for even more egregious violations (put a token lab in every building now it's all R&D wheee).
Point is: I have my doubts.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's ridiculous that you have to spend $10K to patent your idea. Let's just get rid of all those patent office people and lawyers, and save everyone a lot of time and money.
The $10k is a feature, not a bug. Society shouldn't allow patents to be filed without commercial intent (because otherwise you are depriving the world of an idea for 20 years without meaningfully using it), and a $10k pricetag is a good signal of commercial intent. In the EU, patents have escalating fees to make sure that patent rights are only guaranteed as long as a commercial enterprise continues to be successful.…
I can imagine Charlie Brooke frantically taking notes for the next season of Black Mirror.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's worse than the patent office rubber stamping everything. They actually don't rubber stamp things that your average, small inventor might try to patent. They seem to always initially reject applications, requiring multiple submissions with small modifications over and over until they relent and grant. This serves to filter out everyone except those with deep pockets and highly paid patent attorneys. When…
Patent examiners are given a relatively limited time/resource budget to examine applications. For that reason they will often reject early as a strategy [ETA: often, in my experience, with very weak "prior art" that basically matches some keywords], then allow more dedicated inventors to revise. This is mainly a filtering strategy, as best I can see. When your attorney quoted you $10K and suggested the patent would e…