Edward R. Murrow: Who owns the patent on this vaccine?
Jonas Salk: Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?
--
CBS Television interview, on See It Now (12 April 1955); quoted in Shots in the Dark : The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine (2001) by Jon CohenJonas Salk
If we fail in our efforts to achieve harmonisation of patent law relating to computer-implemented inventions in the European Union, we may well be confronted with a renegotiation of the European Patent Convention. The process of renegotiating the European Patent Convention would not require any contribution from this Parliament.
Frits Bolkestein
The patent system was established to encourage inventors to disclose the details of their inventions. Its purpose was to help society rather than to help inventors. At the time, the life span of 17 years for a patent was short compared with the rate of advance of the state of the art. Since patents are an issue only among manufacturers, for whom the cost and effort of a license agreement are small compared with setting up production, the patents often do not do much harm. They do not obstruct most individuals who use patented products.
Richard M. Stallman
Food is the very heart of freedom. How can people be free if they can’t feed themselves without getting sued for patent violations?
Daniel Suarez
To tell you the truth although it would put ?500 in my pockets to specify my own patent rails, I cannot do so after the experience I have had.
George Stephenson
A patent is a legal analog of sticky fly paper: it attracts some of the lowest forms of life.
David L. Webster
Salk, Jonas
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