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Do you think mathematicians should be able to patent formulas too? Some are novel, unobvious and valuable. The argument, I believe, is that formulas aren't inv
by lutorm 17y ago
Do you think mathematicians should be able to patent formulas too? Some are novel, unobvious and valuable.
The argument, I believe, is that formulas aren't invented, they're discovered. That's why I think it's totally, unequivocally absurd that you can patent genomes. Who invented the human (or any other naturally occurring life form's) genome?
Just because something's not obvious or novel doesn't mean you can patent it. You can't patent music or poetry, no matter how obvious, novel or valuable it is.
At least this example is an implementation detail. That seems more reasonable to me than, for example, UI patents. If someone patents a way to make steel, you are free to make steel any other way you can figure out. The same seems to apply with the implementation detail patents, but with the "multitouch" patent Apple's suing over, it seems that the question of how HTC has implemented the functionality doesn't matter because the patent covers the user interaction. And that makes no sense to me. If it's so genuinely difficult to make, then they can patent the implementation. But patents were meant to cover "the process P which accomplishes B from A", not "any means of accomplishing B starting with A even if totally unrelated to P."
- fnid2 17y agoI've heard the discovery vs. invention argument, and there is something too it, but personally, I'm still not clear on how to distinguish between invention and discovery. Wasn't steel a discovery, elements, or quantum theory? Music and poetry are covered by copyright, currently. But the same problem exists there and Larry Lessig has done a lot to protect culture in an environment of copyright litigation. Re: Mathematics and formulas. A lot of the discoveries or inventions in mathematics are patented. Three dimensional protein folding is a huge industry in pharmaceuticals and math is almost 100% of that knowledge. It's applied math, but nonetheless, still patentable mathematics and a lot of it too. I think one differentiator here is that the multi-touch and the one click amazon patent as another example are something that seems obvious to try to achieve given the current environment. There are other ways as well, like a space elevator or gloves to help protect astronauts in space. Is math a fact? I don't know if facts can be patented or copyrighted, though collections of facts surely can.
- bartl 17y agoI think your assertion of patenting a way to do something vs. just patenting doing something is really the core of the problem.