Never Ask a Luddite to Fix Something

Professor Reynolds points to this and asks “IS THE PATENT SYSTEM stifling nanotechnology?”

Follow the link and you will find that the article is sourced from the ETC Group.  My long time readers (heh) may remember that I consider the ETC Group Luddites and an anti-science group.  ETC is known for such howlers as calling for a “mandatory moratorium on synthetic nanomaterials"  Looking to the ETC Group for direction on nanotechnology is like looking to the American Communist Party for direction on free market economics. 

Professor Reynolds is a libertarian scholar and knows the value of the market. In order to fund research and development one must obtain funding and that funding is based upon the ability to protect the R&D investment.  The ETC Group and the “Innovation Partnership” have started an all from war on bio and nanotechnology.  This is their strike against the value of the technology.

The patent system has a bunch of problems; the patent offices of the world are slow and have historically had trouble with new technology.  The plastics industry and the electronics industry faced these challenges during their early phases; those seem to have been worked out to everyone’s benefit.  The U.S. Patent system is the goose that continues to lay golden eggs why should we listen to Luddites to find solutions. 

Some of my proposed solutions for fixing the patent system are here.  Unfortunately, I came up with these without funding from “governments, industry and NGOs” that help ETC Group and the “Innovation Partnership.”   The top three are:

First, identify new technologies early on and develop the infrastructure to rigorously examine patent applications in those areas.

Second, establish meaningful inter partes opposition in the Patent Office that allows the party challenging validity to be fully heard and does not precluding further argument in district court.

Third, establish a unique district court with jurisdiction over patent cases.

US Technological Dominance Threatened

Professor Reynolds links to Global Advances Challenge U.S. Dominance in Science and quotes:

The United States remains the world leader in scientific and technological innovation, but its dominance is threatened by economic development elsewhere, particularly in Asia, the National Science Board said Tuesday in its biennial report on science and engineering.

The comment "The United States remains the world leader in scientific and technological innovation, but its dominance is threatened by economic development elsewhere, particularly in Asia" strikes me about the same as rich folks complaining that the middle and lower classes are catching up. The United States has been dominant in Science and Engineering since World War II. In the post-war period, Japan and West Germany started to close the gap. If you go back 20 years, to when I was an undergraduate, we saw the beginning of an influx of (mostly Chinese) foreign students. More recently, South Asians and Africans have come to the US for an education. This is far from a problem, the way I figure, the world is better off with more scientists and engineers.

A problem that I have never seen addressed in the media is that of newly minted PhDs wanting to stay in the US but forced out by immigration law. Years ago, I interviewed Masters and PhD students for R&D jobs for a Fortune 500 company. Many of the Chinese, South Asian and African students wanted to stay in the US permanently but had to return home when their student visas expired.