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Quotes about Patent Law from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"As such, he was committed to traditional patent law, and barely an official phrase passed his lips without Mossinghoff uttering something about "classic, hornbook patent law," referring to the nineteenth-century case books that informed his views. He was also a textbook Reaganite, inclined to look unfavorably at regulatory or legislative limits on patent life. He had helped the president establish and populate a new, conservative patent court. Just who "requested" that he get involved and testify before Congress on the pro-brand name side is unclear, and there were recriminations all around." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"In addition to the brilliant processes and products that they discovered, they seized other discoveries and copied them under their patent law, which was enacted in 1877. This patent law forced inventors and innovators who filed patents to develop marketable products from their discoveries within a short period of time or suffer increasing fines and, ultimately, lost patents. This prompted industry and university scientists to concentrate their efforts on developing processes and products that had a real market—and on creating products seized patents." - Will Allen, The War on Bugs (Get the book.)

"As such, he was committed to traditional patent law, and barely an official phrase passed his lips without Mossinghoff uttering something about "classic, hornbook patent law," referring to the nineteenth-century case books that informed his views. He was also a textbook Reaganite, inclined to look unfavorably at regulatory or legislative limits on patent life. He had helped the president establish and populate a new, conservative patent court. Just who "requested" that he get involved and testify before Congress on the pro-brand name side is unclear, and there were recriminations all around." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"It involved strict rules, including penalties, food laws, and changes to patent law. The group that was formed became known as the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO controls world trade and is made up of the representatives of 120 nations. The WTO wields tremendous power over any government and the laws of any nation, because it can enforce trade penalties on a country. Enforcement is based on the votes of the nations that comprise the organization." - Byron J. Richards, Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America (Get the book.) "The bill changed patent law, "harmonizing" U.S. law with foreign laws. The new law was written in a way that extended patent protection for pharmaceutical companies. Generic drug competition was delayed for many best-selling drugs, a scam that gave the drug companies $6 billion worth of business they did not deserve—paid for by the U.S. taxpayers. The Hijacking of American Ingenuity As a result of this legislation, small inventors are now at the mercy of large multinational companies and any foreign entity. Under previous U.S." - Byron J. Richards, Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America (Get the book.)

"THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE: HOW PHARMA REINVENTED PAT I ENTS AND THE FDA One of the things that Roche's Irv Lerner and Parke-Davis's Joe Williams liked about Gerry Mossinghoff — besides the former patent commissioner's simpatico view of patent law and his many useful governmental connections — was his vision of federal regulatory agencies. "About that, he was fresh," recalls Williams. Unlike Lew Engman, who saw in the regulatory agencies some kind of compact between the public and its leaders, Gerry Mossinghoff discerned unfulfilled commercial promise. Period." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"If researchers, increasingly motivated by financial gain and hamstrung by sponsorship deals, are forced to trade their discoveries with the rest of the community only under the protection of patent law or commercial secrecy, people will look on the public deal with pharma - in particular, its unimpressive record in finding new drugs - rather differently. Could pharma's massive influence over healthcare actually be thwarting the scientific community's ability of make sense of the new science by directing effort according to its own rather narrow agenda?" - Jacky Law, Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda (Get the book.)

"That "heroic theory of invention," as it is termed, is encouraged by patent law, because an applicant for a patent must prove the novelty of the invention submitted. Inventors thereby have a financial incentive to denigrate or ignore previous work. From a patent lawyer's perspective, the ideal invention is one that arises without any precursors, like Athene springing fully formed from the forehead of Zeus. In reality, even for the most famous and apparently decisive modern inventions, neglected precursors lurked behind the bald claim "X invented Y." - Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Get the book.)

"Works by domestic authors and inventors were afforded nominal—but critical—protection under a copyright and patent law that explicitly set out to cultivate a post-colonial America in soil enriched by the composted works of foreign powers. No developing nation today enjoys this privilege. A combination of international copyright, patent, and trademark laws have robbed developing nations of the autonomy that would allow them to embark on a program of self-improvement comparable to that of America's in its first century as a nation." - Alex Steffen, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Get the book.)

"It was exactly this kind of rubber vulcanization micromanufacturing that could find a particularly receptive niche in and around Paris, well beyond the troubling particulars of British patent law. The technology of the process dictated its small-scale nature, allowing cold vulcanization and other carbon disulfide treatments of rubber to be carried out in poorly maintained workplaces that were often little more than sheds and sometimes even less." - Paul D. Blanc, M.D., How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace (Get the book.)

"Taking advantage of the "novelty" criterion in international patent law, with regard to the documentation of Ayurvedic and other traditional medicine, millennial Sanskrittexts as well as modern publications are included in a traditional knowledge database, which is subsequently provided to patent agencies. The expectation is that, by placing the knowledge about long-term cultural precedents for traditional uses in the public domain, this research will prove that contemporary patent applications derived from local medicinal knowledge lack originality, i.e." - Rainer W. Bussmann and Douglas Sharon, Plants of the four winds - The magic and medicinal flora of Peru (Get the book.)

"To start with, U.S. patent law should be enforced in its original form. Courts have progressively weakened the requirement that new discoveries or inventions be useful, novel, and non-obvious. There is no possible justification, for instance, for a new patent on Prozac to treat premenstrual tension. Examiners in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office should not receive bonuses based on how many patent applications they handle. Since it is easier to grant a patent than to deny it, the current payment practice encourages quick approval, whatever the merits." - Marcia Angell, M.D., The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It (Get the book.) "I am aware that such a change would be difficult to achieve, given the current move to harmonize patent law internationally. But as I said earlier, I am sketching an ideal system, and this change would certainly be an improvement. The law granting drug companies an extra six months of exclusive marketing rights for testing drugs in children should be repealed. That law is virtual bribery, and it doesn't even accomplish its stated purpose. Drug companies take advantage of the law to test blockbuster drugs in children whether the drugs are meant for this age-group or not." - Marcia Angell, M.D., The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It (Get the book.) "Of course, if patent law were strictly enforced, so that patents were granted only for discoveries or inventions that are truly useful, novel, and non-obvious, there wouldn't be so many secondary patents. There is no reason for a thirty-month stay on generic companies entering the market just because brand-name companies sue them. Even if a brand-name company genuinely believes that a relevant patent would be violated, it could sue the generic company without an automatic extension of exclusive marketing rights." - Marcia Angell, M.D., The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It (Get the book.) "Others, like changing patent law or achieving uniform pricing have all sorts of global ramifications and would face almost insurmountable obstacles. But there is value in trying to define the ideal system, so that we can move toward it in the best way possible—unevenly and incompletely, if necessary—but at least with an understanding of where we want to go. My proposals address seven broad problems that have been discussed in this book. They are listed here with references to the chapters in which they were discussed, in case you want to refresh your memory." - Marcia Angell, M.D., The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It (Get the book.)

"And speaking of patented secrets, this is an oxymoron. U.S. patent law is very clear: In order for an ingredient or group of ingredients to be patented, the exact components and precise formulation details must be disclosed in full. It doesn't take much for a hair-care company to figure out an alternative to a patented formula; and if that's not feasible, they can buy the licensed right to use the formula. Realistically, if a product could repair hair, you should only have to use it a few times and then your hair would be repaired. That isn't what happens." - Paula Begoun, Don't Go Shopping for Hair-Care Products Without Me (Get the book.)

"In the presence of the professors, one of Scheeles colleagues PhotoRead a volume of U.S. patent law. "Afterwards," writes Scheele, "he scored 75 percent comprehension. In addition, he drew approximations of six patent illustrations and correctly identified their numeric sequence." An Evolutionary Leap PhotoReading appears to be a natural step forward in the evolution of human reading skills. In ancient and medieval times, people commonly read out loud. Most found it difficult to read without at least moving their lips. Today, almost every literate person can read silently." - Win Wenger, Ph.D. and Richard Poe, The Einstein Factor: A Proven New Method for Increasing Your Intelligence (Get the book.)

"I admired the approach to health care he described, wishing that in the United States health care were based more on people's needs, instead of on profitability, shareholder stock value, and patent law. After roasting in the infernally hot basement, we walked upstairs to a cavernous hall where herbs were stored prior to their use in medicines dispensed to many Indians as a free service. In the hall, groaning sacks of herbs smelled woody, sweet, and aromatic in a hundred different ways. "Where is the ashwagandha?" I asked Dr. Prabakhan." - Chris Kilham, Hot Plants: Nature's Proven Sex Boosters for Men and Women (Get the book.)

"Arbour et al argued that patent law is irrelevant because it is designed to protect an inventor's "monopoly over his invention". The question, they wrote, is whether growing a Monsanto invention accidentally in any way deprived Monsanto of that legally granted monopoly over their invention. These four judges found, that in no way was Monsanto's monopoly infringed, as it could go on making pdes of money from people who buy their engineered seeds voluntardy." - Helke Ferrie, Dispatches From the War Zone of Environmental Health (Get the book.) "Proposals have been put forward suggesting that patent law and laws governing corporate activities should include the proviso that profits may only be made as long as they do not harm the environment and human health. This contrasts, of course, wildly with what the entire corporate ambition is all about. However, there was a time when it was considered totally crazy to have an economy NOT based on slavery. The US of the mid-19th century could not imagine it and wound up having a civil war over this notion. We need to imagine an economy not based on exploitation." - Helke Ferrie, Dispatches From the War Zone of Environmental Health (Get the book.) "This decision has removed the teeth from their patent", he observed (indeed from all biotech patents) and pointed out that "now parliament will have to act, because we have a conflict between plant breeders' right and patent law." That is true, too, because Supreme Court rulings, such as this one, which clearly identify a problem in existing law, cannot be ignored by Parliament. Something will happen now sooner or later to change the Patent Act. This is a great opportunity for those of us who want to get involved to do so." - Helke Ferrie, Dispatches From the War Zone of Environmental Health (Get the book.) "Our sole concern is with the application of established principles of patent law to.. .this case." They go on: "The Patent Act confers on the patent owner 'the exclusive right, privilege and liberty of making, constructing and using the invention and selling it to others to be used'.' Schmeiser was found to "cultivate" Monsanto's canola, that is to say: the stuff was on his land. These five judges found that he was using somebody else's property, because "our task is to interpret the Patent Act as it stands" Right—George Bernard Shaw famously said that most of the time "the law is an ass." - Helke Ferrie, Dispatches From the War Zone of Environmental Health (Get the book.)

"I propose that the runaway cost of care, changing financial incentives, inflated income expectations, falling physicians' income, changes in patent law, and substantial influence of industry on medical research were essential ingredients. But societal and cultural factors also contributed heavily." - Jerome P. Kassirer, On the Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health (Get the book.)

"The problem with herbal medicines is that herbs are not patentable, so no one can gain the exclusive right to sell an herb. patent law is designed to protect inventors, but it also prevents people from claiming they invented common things that were already known. Common substances such as ice— or ginseng—have been known for too long to be patentable. So if a company chose to spend $350 million to prove that ginseng is safe and effective, anyone could sell it as a safe and effective drug. patent law prevents them from "owning" ginseng, and rightly so. No one owns folk medicines." - Robert S. McCaleb, Evelyn Leigh, and Krista Morien, The Encyclopedia of Popular Herbs (Get the book.)

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