Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 09:53:36 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: cjclark@alum.mit.edu, Salvo Bartolotta <bartequi@neomedia.it>, Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com>, "P. U. (Uli) Kruppa" <root@pukruppa.de>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Use of the UNIX Trademark Message-ID: <20011011095336.A475@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <3BC53F53.967C60E7@mindspring.com>; from tlambert2@mindspring.com on Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 11:42:27PM -0700 References: <000601c15084$87edd360$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> <1002663600.3bc36eb096ee5@webmail.neomedia.it> <20011009231343.C387@blossom.cjclark.org> <1002731960.3bc479b899603@webmail.neomedia.it> <20011010140126.M387@blossom.cjclark.org> <20011010233539.G83192@lpt.ens.fr> <3BC53F53.967C60E7@mindspring.com>
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Terry Lambert said on Oct 10, 2001 at 23:42:27: > > I guess we could compare U.S. biotechnology or computer science, > where it's possible to patent the results, with other countries, > where it is not. 8-). > > Whether you like it or not, strong intellectual property law > is one of the greatest contributors to U.S. primacy in almost > all fields of technology where we don't have social reasons > for not pursuing the technology. I guess this is also the reason the US has led research in theoretical physics since World War II, to the point that we now understand high-energy physics down to some fantastically small length scales, we understand metals and "traditional" superconductors very well, we have the basic equations everywhere and the remaining difficulties are in solving them and finding suitable approximations. A huge amount of this work was done in the US, which has received the largest fraction of the Nobels too. I suppose it wouldn't have happened without protecting the IP of all these physicists. Or would it? How many patents were given out in these areas? The fact is the US has one of the best university systems in the world, and around WW II, it also had a huge influx of some of the best brains from Europe, which made the US a leader in research. This has nothing to do with IP; nothing in theoretical physics is protected by IP. The US lead is simply because of a better infrastructure. Even so, the Japanese have dominated in some markets, such as small cars and consumer electronics; Europe has produced some well known brands too (the Netherlands perhaps have more multinationals per capita than any other country, and incidentally they have a strong university system too). The Japanese story is particularly interesting, because they made hardly any technological breakthroughs themselves; they took others' technology (like the transistor) and used it in innovative ways. Their success owes nothing whatever to strong IP protection. (It's funny that Yamaha is one of the biggest names in making classical and flamenco Spanish guitars today, among other musical instruments. This has nothing to do with IP protection either.) The US lead in computer science also has nothing to do with strong IP protection; it's because of its thriving university system, and many computer scientists are opposed to software patents. R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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