Ellen t’ Hoen’s Ted Talk begins with the Wright Brothers’ first successful flight in 1903. They took out many patents for the different parts and methods required to build the airplane.
This led to conflict with the government as they wanted airplanes for military use and patent law. The government made those patent holders make the patents public to enable the production of airplanes.
This led to great progress for the aviation industry. She speaks about a similar problem in the medical industry with regards to AIDS treatment. The patents on treatment for AIDS were held by a number of western pharmaceuticals, which were not available to many other regions. India did not believe in medical patents and so they made a cheaper copy and distributed it to the developing nations. This cheaper medicine meant more people could afford it, less people dying, and scientific experiments showed less people spreading it onwards. Ellen claims then that we have the tools to stop this epidemic.
All countries are required to provide patents for pharmaceuticals that lasts about 20 years. The rules have changed so India can no longer do that. The medicine patent relies on the willingness of pharmaceutical companies to license their patents whereas the airplane holders did not have an option. Maybe the government should consider intervening again if it could possibly help save lives. I thought it was interesting how this is an example of how the patent system can also function as a business.
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