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Countries with very lenient enforcement of IP laws have very minimal innovation. Brazil, Argentina, India. Countries who haven't signed TRIPS almost no innov
by adrr 3y ago
Countries with very lenient enforcement of IP laws have very minimal innovation. Brazil, Argentina, India. Countries who haven't signed TRIPS almost no innovation, North Korea, Somalia. Countries with the strictest patent laws and enforcement are the leaders in innovation. Germany, US, South Korea.
Strict enforcement of patent laws ensures that capital will be invested in innovation.
- drekk 3y agoConversely, I'm not going to need to ration insulin in Argentina, Brazil, or India. Can't speak to the DPRK or Somalia as I haven't been. If capital was allocated democratically rather than at the whim of companies (that end up chasing taxpayer subsidies anyways... SpaceX, Tesla, etc.) you wouldn't need to strictly enforce patent law. The risk is already being assumed mostly by the government for truly bleeding edge research. What we have in practice is a system where the cost is socialized and the benefit is privatized.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoThe whole insulin debacle is purely the USA’s fault. You don’t see similar problems in Europe even with strong IP protection.
- adrr 3y agoInsulin isn't covered by patent laws. You're free to take your capital and go start an insulin company and sell it at low prices.
- morsch 3y agoStrong handed IP enforcement is hardly the only thing Germany, the US and South Korea have in common. Etc for the other groups.
- adrr 3y agoIts more evidence than what the OP is providing with their argument that patents hold back innovation. I get downvoted for providing evidence and they got upvoted by for making some populist statement with no evidence.
- 8ytecoder 3y agoIndia doesn't allow software patents and evergreening of pharmaceutical patents. Both are reasonable positions IMHO. Other than that, the IP protection is no less or no more than most of the western countries. Considering most of my issues with patents is around trivial software patents and the abhorrent practice of slightly modifying a formula (coupled with paying generic manufacturers to not produce) to effectively extend the usable lifetime of a drug patent, if anything, it's the West that needs to change to make patents be actually good for innovation and not just a means to throttle competition.
- mort96 3y agoDo you think maybe there might be an underlying cause which results in both weak IP law enforcement and low innovation? I mean would fucking North Korea be a heaven of innovation if only they more strictly policed IP law??