首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
"Conquest by Patents" Patents are a form of intellectual property rights often touted as a means to give ’incentive and rewar
"Conquest by Patents" Patents are a form of intellectual property rights often touted as a means to give ’incentive and rewar
admin
2018-07-24
24
问题
"Conquest by Patents"
Patents are a form of
intellectual property
rights often touted as a means to give ’incentive and reward’ to inventors. But they’re also a cause for massive protests by farmers, numerous lawsuits by transnational corporations and indigenous peoples, and countless rallies and declarations by members of civil society. It is impossible to understand why they can have all these effects unless you first recognize that patents are about the control of technology and the protection of competitive advantage.
Lessons from History
In the 1760s, the Englishman Richard Arkwright invented the water-powered spinning frame, a machine destined to bring cotton-spinning out of the home and into the factory. It was an invention which made Britain a world-class power in the manufacture of cloth. To pretect its competitive advantage and ensure the market for manufactured cloth in British colonies, Parliament enacted a series of restrictive measures including the prohibition of the export of Arkwright machinery or the emigration of any workers who had worked in factories using it. From 1774 on, those caught sending Arkwright machines or workers abroad from England were subject to fines and 12 years in jail.
In 1790, Samuel Slater, who had worked for years in the Arkwright mills, left England for the New World disguised as a farmer. A He thereby enabled the production of commercial-grade cotton cloth in the New World and put the U.S. firmly on the road to the Industrial Revolution and economic independence. B Slater was highly rewarded for his achievement. C He is still deemed the ’father of American manufacturing’. D To the English, however, he was an intellectual property thief.
Interestingly, patent protection was a part of U.S. law at the time of Slater’s deed. But that protection would only extend to U.S. innovations. It is worth remembering that until the 1970s it was understood, even accepted, that countries only enforced those patent protections that served their national interest. When the young United States pirated the intellectual property of Europe—and Slater wasn’t the only infringer—people in the U.S. saw the theft as a justifiable response to England’s refusal to transfer its technology.
By the early 1970s, the situation had changed. U.S. industry demanded greater protection for its idea-based products—such as computers and biotechnology—for which it still held the worldwide lead. Together with its like-minded industrial allies, the U.S. pushed for the inclusion of intellectual property clauses, including standards for patents, in international trade agreements.
When U.S. business groups explained the ’need’ for patents and trademarks in trade agreements, they alleged $40-60 billion losses due to intellectual property piracy; they blamed the losses on Third World pirates; they discussed how piracy undermined the incentive to invest; and they claimed that the quality of pirated products was lower than the real thing and was costing lives.
The opposition pointed out that many of the products made in the industrial world, almost all its food crops and a high percentage of its medicines had originated in plant and animal germplasm taken from the developing world. First, knowledge of the material and how to use it was stolen, and later the material itself was taken. For all this, they said, barely a cent of royalties had been paid. Such unacknowledged and uncompensated appropriation they named ’biopiracy’ and they reasoned that trade agreement patent rules were likely to facilitate more theft of their genetic materials. Their claim that materials ’collected’ in the developing world were stolen, elicited a counterclaim that these were ’natural’ or ’raw’ materials and therefore did not qualify for patents. This in turn induced a counter-explanation that such materials were not ’raw’ but rather the result of millennia of study, selection, protection, conservation, development and refinement by communities of Majority World and indigenous peoples.
Others pointed out that trade agreements which forced the adoption of unsuitable notions of property and creativity—not to mention an intolerable commercial relationship to nature—were not only insulting but also exceedingly costly. To a developing world whose creations might not qualify for patents and royalties, there was first of all the cost of unrealized profit. Secondly, there was the cost of added expense for goods from the industrialized world. For most of the people on the planet, the whole patenting process would lead to greater and greater indebtedness; for them, the trade agreements would amount to ’conquest by patents’—no matter what the purported commercial benefits.
Glossary
intellectual property: an invention or composition that belongs to the person who created it
Which of the sentences below best expresses the information in the highlighted statement in the passage? The other choices change the meaning or leave out important information.
选项
A、Among the laws to protect Britain from competition in the textile industry was a ban on exporting Arkwright equipment and on emigration of former employees.
B、Former employees of Arkwright could not leave the country because they might provide information about the company to competing factories.
C、The reason that Britain passed laws to prevent emigration was to keep employees in the textile mills from leaving their jobs to work in other countries.
D、Parliament passed laws to ensure that the price of textiles was kept high in spite of competition from the former British colonies who were exporting cloth.
答案
A
解析
Among the laws to protect Britain from competition paraphrases ’To protect its [Britain’s] competitive advantage . . . Parliament enacted a series of restrictive measures," and the textile industry paraphrases "manufactured cloth."... a ban on exporting Arkwright equipment paraphrases "the prohibition of the export of Arkwright machinery" and the [ban on] emigration of former employees paraphrases "the emigration of any workers who had worked in factories using it [Arkwright machinery]."
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/QzhYFFFM
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
ChooseTWOletters,A-E.WhichTWOrecentdevelopmentsinroof-gardenbuildingarementioned?AwaterproofbarriermaterialsBd
Completethesentencesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.Thelandfordevelopmenthasnotbeenusedforov
Completethenotesbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.DevelopmentStudiesDevelopmentStudiesattemptstounderstand-
Completethenotesbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.DevelopmentStudiesDevelopmentStudiesattemptstounderstand-
PatentsandInventionsWhenaninventionismade,theinventorhasthreepossiblecoursesofactionopentohim:first,hec
PatentsandInventionsWhenaninventionismade,theinventorhasthreepossiblecoursesofactionopentohim:first,hec
PatentsandInventionsWhenaninventionismade,theinventorhasthreepossiblecoursesofactionopentohim:first,hec
PatentsandInventionsWhenaninventionismade,theinventorhasthreepossiblecoursesofactionopentohim:first,hec
"ConquestbyPatents"→Patentsareaformofintellectualpropertyrightsoftentoutedasameanstogive’incentiveandrew
随机试题
曲线y=x3(x一4)的拐点个数为
A.磷脂酶AB.弹性蛋白酶C.脂肪酶D.激肽释放酶与急性胰腺炎皂化斑的发生有关的是
男,75岁,右足第1跖趾关节和拇趾趾间关节疼痛3天,局部红肿,每于夜间痛醒,半年前有类似发作史。结合右足正斜位片,最可能的诊断是
原发性痛经的临床特征,下列哪项是错误的
白蔹的性状特征为
路面工程施工中,相邻结构层之间的速度决定了相邻结构层之间的搭接类型。前道工序的速度快于后道工序时,选用()搭接类型。
甲公司2012年度共发生管理费用1850万元,其中:以现金支付退休职工薪酬280万元和管理人员薪酬680万元,存货盘亏损失28万元,计提固定资产折旧320万元,无形资产摊销130万元,其余均以现金支付。假定不考虑其他因素,甲公司2012年度现金流量表中“支
已办理税务登记的扣缴义务人应当自扣缴义务发生之日起()日内,向税务登记地税务机关申报办理扣缴税款登记。
关于2010年部分节假日安排的通知××××:经县政府批准,现将2010年部分节假日安排通知下发给你们。根据《国务院关于修改的决定》,为便于各单位、各部门及早合理安排节假日旅游、交通运输、生产经营等有关工作,经国务院批准,2010年部分节假日放假调休日
撒哈拉以南的非洲存在着严重的人口、粮食与环境方面的问题。下列措施中对解决上述三种问题都能起到有效作用的是()。
最新回复
(
0
)