Warp wrote:
>   In the European patenting system (at least in principle) you cannot
> restrict what people do. The only thing the patent restricts is selling
> of the patented products.

I see. Yes, the American patent system is more restrictive than that. You 
can still build the stuff yourself, but only for research purposes. (Your 
guess is as good as mine as to when you cross from research to commercial 
use. :-)

>   Those are, of course, quite extreme cases. 

Actually, I'm pretty sure the one with the laser pointer was done as a means 
of showing how stupid the patent system has gotten. :-)

>   Being able to patent eg. a method for vulcanizing rubber is completely
> akin to being able to patent a food recipe.

So can you patent chemicals, like drugs? How do you pay for the R&D that 
goes into something like a method for making a particular drug if you can't 
charge more than it costs to manufacture?

Something like 1/2 to 2/3'rds of the cost of a CPU is paying for the 
development of the first batch. I would be surprised if it wasn't at least 
as expensive to develop and test drugs.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Insanity is a small city on the western
   border of the State of Mind.

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