I totally agree with this and I think that there should be a total moratorium on new patents until we can come up with a better solution that fits the modern world.
Reshared post from +Ashley Esqueda
I know a lot of you here on G+ are hell bent on this #BoycottApple thing.
But do you understand that Apple is merely a SYMPTOM of a much larger problem? The US Patent System is incredibly broken. And since a lot of you are so vehemently charged up about technology/mobile patents, I'm asking you TODAY to get outraged about another sector of the patent system that needs revamping.
Did you know that drug companies can patent GENES? As in, ones that cause breast/ovarian cancer? Because they can.
And then they can refuse other lab requests to do research on said gene, therefore stifling any manner of "cure" testing. In fact, if they let a lab test, often that lab has to pay huge fees to license the patent in order to research.
This isn't just about people's cell phones. This is about human lives. How many more relatives will we lose to a disease whose gene was patented by a pharmaceutical company before we speak up for OUR rights?
If you want to be mad at Apple, go ahead. Be mad. But realize it's just like being mad at the itchy red spots on your skin when you get chicken pox. Those spots show up because that's what the disease tells it to do.
Combat the disease, not the symptoms. And share this with your offline family, too. People should be outraged by this.
http://www.aclu.org/free-speech-womens-rights/aclu-challenges-patents-breast-cancer-genes-0
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ACLU Challenges Patents On Breast Cancer Genes: BRCA
On May 12, 2009, the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed a lawsuit charging that patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer are unconstitutional and invalid…
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I agree as well, but we must understand that we can't always attack the system, sometimes we have to attack the smaller parts that comprise it so that we can slowly chip away at it until we can get the whole system to change. This is how it is done, bringing each individual problem into the light to give it a face, something people can relate to and stand up against rather than a system they know nothing about and can easily lose interest in.
As an inventor on several US patents, I can say that the system is incredibly broken. A system set up to protect 'the little guy' now is used by the big established players to quash any possible innovation using their hoard of overly broad patents. If you, as a company, don't have an equivalent hoard that you can use to 'cross-license' or participate in some mutually assured destruction scenario, you're sunk. And a patent costs about $250,000 from start to finish (and 3+ years from filing to award) – not in most Mom & Pop operation budgets, much less for the number necessary to be any kind of defense.
(standard disclaimer – I speak for myself, not my employer)
+Sam Abuelsamid , I read that as a moratorium on new parents.
+Kelly Bradley I can think of certain parents that could probably do with a moratorium but that's a subject for another thread