I'm calling Bullshit on Medtronic's Open Sourcing of a ventilator design
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: I'm calling Bullshit on Medtronic's Open Sourcing of a ventilator design
#2Nationalize this IP and require the IP to be open source. Figure out the payments afterwards.
Re: I'm calling Bullshit on Medtronic's Open Sourcing of a ventilator design
#3I wonder if there is a project where a cheaper hospital for a third world country can be created by using tech which is old but not covered under current IP (expired patents).
I mean i believe stuff like MRI cannot be manufactured by non large manufacturers but what about all other machines.
My guess is the bottleneck would be no one except current manufacturers make it at scale to do it cheap enough. It would be a great project to have though.
When i look at the prices of certain devices it just boggles my mind. It is crazier when one realizes that some of these are not even patent protected.
Re: I'm calling Bullshit on Medtronic's Open Sourcing of a ventilator design
#4Nationalize this IP and require the IP to be open source. Figure out the payments afterwards.
Why not nationalize the IP from all the ventilator manufacturers and make a best of breed version. But we would have to get it into mass production in a month to be of significant benefit.
Re: I'm calling Bullshit on Medtronic's Open Sourcing of a ventilator design
#5I wonder if there is a project where a cheaper hospital for a third world country can be created by using tech which is old but not covered under current IP (expired patents). I mean i believe stuff like MRI cannot be manufactured by non large manufacturers but what about all other machines. My guess is the bottleneck would be no one except current manufacturers make it at scale to do it cheap enough. It would be a g…
Most developing countries are free to ignore intellectual property laws.
Re: I'm calling Bullshit on Medtronic's Open Sourcing of a ventilator design
#6Nationalize this IP and require the IP to be open source. Figure out the payments afterwards.
The US can do that easily. 28 USC 1498.
Re: I'm calling Bullshit on Medtronic's Open Sourcing of a ventilator design
#7I wonder if there is a project where a cheaper hospital for a third world country can be created by using tech which is old but not covered under current IP (expired patents). I mean i believe stuff like MRI cannot be manufactured by non large manufacturers but what about all other machines. My guess is the bottleneck would be no one except current manufacturers make it at scale to do it cheap enough. It would be a g…
Most developing countries are free to ignore intellectual property laws.
Anecdotal story: Once upon a time Software piracy was rampant in India. However in my city a coalition of software cos joined hand with local law enforcement and did unscheduled raids on facilities like some educational institutions suspected of piracy. It turned out in one place money authorized for software licenses were absorbed by the procurement dept (1 person) and he installed pirated software instead.
Re: I'm calling Bullshit on Medtronic's Open Sourcing of a ventilator design
#8Nationalize this IP and require the IP to be open source. Figure out the payments afterwards.
Why not nationalize the IP from all the ventilator manufacturers and make a best of breed version. But we would have to get it into mass production in a month to be of significant benefit.
You answered your own question. We've already tried to make our own tests and failed, thereby significantly delaying our response. It's likely that we would fail to integrate the IP successfully on the first try too. Also what is best-in-breed? At this point, for maximum community benefit, it seems like we need cheap and fast to produce, not highest quality.
Re: I'm calling Bullshit on Medtronic's Open Sourcing of a ventilator design
#9Not only are the files incomplete to actually go into production, they’ve picked a model where the components are not readily available on the open market in quantities large enough to have an impact corresponding to effort. IC4 is some variant of the ST10F27 (can’t make out the last digit from the low res pdf they’ve provided), and there are only a few thousand of all variants of that chip available online with quotes lead times of up to 30 weeks.
I was initially pleasantly surprised with this release but tweeted my disappointment pretty quickly. Even with a schematic it can take months to get the layout right and validated on a line, build and setup the test apparatus...
Re: I'm calling Bullshit on Medtronic's Open Sourcing of a ventilator design
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most developing countries are free to ignore intellectual property laws.
Anecdotal story: Once upon a time Software piracy was rampant in India. However in my city a coalition of software cos joined hand with local law enforcement and did unscheduled raids on facilities like some educational institutions suspected of piracy. It turned out in one place money authorized for software licenses were absorbed by the procurement dept (1 person) and he installed pirated software instead.
I think you may be misapprehending the implication HN user "kick" may be making.
I think "kick" means that there are developing nations that don't care about IP law. The authorities in these nations are not going to help anyone arrest anyone. In fact, in some developing nations, the authorities may actually be the ones infringing the IP.
I know for a fact this is the case in Cuba.
Of course Cuba's doctors are world renown, but just how do you think their health system gets those kinds of world leading medical outcomes under a comprehensive blockade for over 60 years with no access to medications or healthcare technology? It's not only due to Cuban doctors inventing novel procedures and medications. (Which is admirable). It's also due in no small part to the Cuban state flagrantly ignoring IP. And Cuban doctors will infringe IP without hesitation if they think it will help their patients. So when Cuban doctors show up in West Africa to contain Ebola, or in East Africa for SARS, or in Italy for Coronavirus, or etc etc etc, the host nations likely don't ask a whole lot of questions about whether or not certain equipment or medications they have with them infringe patents.
Please don't misunderstand, I don't believe what the Cuban medical community does is wrong at all. They've got a patient, and they see themselves as pure doctors and not beholden to commercial interests where patient safety is concerned. Good on them. I'm just pointing out that "kick" is right, there are a lot of developing nations out there who simply ignore IP. Cuba is just one of the more famous examples.