Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: Do drug patents apply in life or death situation?. The

Yours is an excellent question which requires one to consider the competing public policy issues in a "perfect world" more than any pertinent issues of law.

Legally and historically speaking, on January 08, 1783 - Dr. Noah Webster's "Act for the Encouragement of Literature and Genius" was enacted as law in the Colonial State of Connecticut. This was our first precursor to the soon to be enacted U.S. Constitution Article 1, Section 8, which grants to authors and inventors the right for a limited time to have exclusive rights to exploit their creations.

In the modern world, consider: while the grant of a patent enables a "big drug company" to exclude all competition against encroachment on a captive market, a "generic" drug can be more widely and competitively produced and distributed.

However, this is not necessarily illegal, immoral or wrong.

This is because, it is in the public interest that "big" companies spend "big" dollars engaging in years of research and development in order to discover a new and useful way to improve health care or save lives. As such, we must reward the inventors with the opportunity to reap the benefits of their hard work and many investments.

We would note that in time, all patents expire (that is why penicillin is cheaper than CIPRO)

and then such medicines can be more widely available. Until then, even in cases of national emergency (eg ANTHRAX) our government can only purchase (or license) rights to the patent or instead stockpile legitimate drugs by purchasing them directly from the manufacturer.

While our economic system hopes for altruism, in this instance, it depends strictly on capitalism to repay the investment of the doctors and drug companies who improve our lives. To offset such a potectially harsh result, it is up to our elected officials to ensure adequate health care (and pharmacy benefits) exists for all of our citizens, including your mother.

For more information about intellectual property rights (patents, trademarks, copyrights) please visit us at www.brandXperts.com

God bless.