[DIYbio] Patented Methods (Was: DIY Telomere Length Test?)

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Well, IAANAL, but I recall hearing that the "research" exemption is
narrowly interpreted, and pretty much only covers academic
institutions; clearly that'll be interpreted case-by-case.

DIY is not always about personal work though; what if a group were
doing telomere measurements together? As part of workshops? That's
clearly not research, and it's clearly a breach of government-sponsored
monopoly, and therefore grounds for a lawsuit.

In the case that prompted this offshoot, we actually have a staffer
from a company that aims to monopolise a method, on-list. That puts
either us, or him, in a bad position; either he is contractually
obliged as an employee to rat on the group, which risks his job if he
doesn't, or we're obliged to cease discussing methods and skills that
are now illegal by virtue of government-sponsored monopoly.

Before anyone jumps in with "innovation!" nonsense, let's leave that
aside; even though the evidence doesn't back patents at all anyway,
patents were never supposed to cover skills, only "inventions". Process
and method patents effectively privatise and monopolise skillsets,
saying "this trade belongs to this person henceforth". It's the
antithesis of what we do here, but sadly we have no recourse if someone
chooses to buy the rights to a skill from a government. We either have
to come up with other methods, or move discussions on science off-list
to avoid exposure to legal assaults from companies too afraid to keep
innovating.

On Fri, 16 Aug 2013 22:45:51 -0700 (PDT)
Patrik D'haeseleer <patrikd@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Friday, August 16, 2013 7:05:54 AM UTC-7, Cathal Garvey wrote:
>
> > But bear in mind that in the US, you're not
> > allowed to use patented techniques except in very limited
> > circumstances. So, even though we now know as much of Telome's
> > methods as they've so far revealed, if they get a patent then those
> > of us on US soil will have to cease using that method if they want
> > to publicly solicit advice, unless they care to risk being sued for
> > patent infringement
>
>
> IANAL, but as I understand it, there is an exemption for biomedical
> research. So whether you're using this methods for personal use, or
> developing novel DIY methodologies based on it, you shoudl be OK to
> do so without having to look over your shoulder for the patent
> infringement police...
>
> Patrik
>