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It's always been interesting to me how patent law is so much more balanced than copyright law, particularly regarding term length (14 years vs. 70+life). True, when effective patent life on drugs declined then Hatch-Waxman extended it again, but it did so in a reasonable and conditional manner designed to stimulate innovation, as opposed to the 1998 copyright nonsense. Here, however, the imbalance is causing real issues. Under-dosed artemisinin counterfeits is a truly chilling concept. I've never been an IP abolitionist, I just want the law to do what the Constitution requires: encourage innovation. Seems like an exemption could easily be carved out here for greater punishment. If we can push an expansion of copyright globally surely we can push this, and there's even big money behind it.
--Ari
It's always been interesting to me how patent law is so much more balanced than copyright law, particularly regarding term length (14 years vs. 70+life). True, when effective patent life on drugs declined then Hatch-Waxman extended it again, but it did so in a reasonable and conditional manner designed to stimulate innovation, as opposed to the 1998 copyright nonsense. Here, however, the imbalance is causing real issues. Under-dosed artemisinin counterfeits is a truly chilling concept. I've never been an IP abolitionist, I just want the law to do what the Constitution requires: encourage innovation. Seems like an exemption could easily be carved out here for greater punishment. If we can push an expansion of copyright globally surely we can push this, and there's even big money behind it.
--Ari
posted by Ari F. | 7:10 AM
1 Comments:
This article has been discussed recently on Planet Debian here, here, and here. The middle post (by Benjamin Mako Hill) argues (I think successfully) that this isn't really an IP issue, but an "unregulated drugs" issue.
Ethan
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