Thursday, February 17, 2011

Current intellectual property laws are blocking innovation

Groklaw has a good summary of the state of intellectual property law, The White House Asks: What's Blocking Innovation in America? - My Answer: IP Laws. It's best feature is a link to video of James Boyle's brilliant talk, Four Ways to Ruin a Technological Revolution. Boyle references Thomas Jefferson's writing on the topic: a letter to Isaac McPherson (here, here and here).

The invalidation of Myriad Genetics' BRCA gene patents last year gives some cause for hope. That decision is in appeal now. I hope the powers that be don't fail to appreciate the power of collaborative innovation.

I still mean to get around to reading Lawrence Lessig's The Future of Ideas, the fate of the commons in a connected world.

No comments:

Post a Comment

A political economy

A recent piece in the Economist ( A new anthology of essays reconsiders Thomas Piketty’s “Capital” , May 20, 2107) ends with these words: ...