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
23
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
In paragraph 3, how does the author explain the concept of technological transfer?
选项
A、By recounting how Samuel Slater, an American farmer, established a successful textile mill in Great Britain.
B、By describing how Samuel Slater used workers from Britain to develop the textile industry in the United States.
C、By exposing how Samuel Slater stole ideas and technology from one nation to introduce them in another.
D、By demonstrating how Samuel Slater used the laws to his advantage in order to transfer technology.
答案
C
解析
"... Samuel Slater, who had worked for years in the Arkwright mills, left England .. . disguised as a farmer... he was an intellectual property thief." Choice A is not correct because Slater established the textile mill in America, not in Great Britain. Choice B is not correct because Slater was the only worker from Britain. Choice D is not correct because Slater broke the law.
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/0tfO777K
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
Choosethecorrectletter,A,BorC.MuseumofAnthropologyThemuseumisfamousforitscollectionofculturalitemsfrom
Completethenotesbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.DevelopmentStudiesDevelopmentStudiesattemptstounderstand-
Completethenotesbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.DevelopmentStudiesDevelopmentStudiesattemptstounderstand-
EngineeringforsustainabledevelopmentTheGreenhouseProject(Himalayanmountainregion)ProblemShortgrowingseason
A、Therightsofprivatebusinessownersshouldbeprotected.B、Thegovernmentshouldn’tinterfereinprivatebusiness.C、Politic
Amergerisachievedwhenacompanypurchasedtheproperty(ofother)firms,(thus)absorbingthem(into)onecorporatestructur
Anactivistforwomen’s(rights),LeonoraO’Reillypromotedwomen’svocationaltraining(besides)foughtfor(increased)(wages)
PatentsandInventionsWhenaninventionismade,theinventorhasthreepossiblecoursesofactionopentohim:first,hec
PatentsandInventionsWhenaninventionismade,theinventorhasthreepossiblecoursesofactionopentohim:first,hec
PatentsandInventionsWhenaninventionismade,theinventorhasthreepossiblecoursesofactionopentohim:first,hec
随机试题
A.血、尿、大便常规检查B.病理检查C.内镜检查D.影像学检查E.肿瘤标志物直接观察肿瘤
甲公司和乙公司都是上市公司;甲公司为了开拓业务需要,欲通过证券交易所交易对乙公司进行收购。下列说法正确的是:()
背景由某企业承建某多功能现代化商务综合大厦,地上46层,地下3层,全现浇钢筋混凝土框架一剪力墙结构,主体结构采用泵送混凝土等新技术。建筑物周边都十分接近规划用地红线,周边建筑及地下管线对因工程基坑开挖引起地层变形移动影响十分敏感,且基坑北面邻近地铁。该工
我A公司于某年7月15日收到欧洲某国B公司发盘:“马口铁500公吨,每公吨545美元CFR青岛,9月份装运,即期信用证付款,限20日复到有效。”我方于16日复电:“若单价为500美元CFR青岛,可接受500公吨马口铁。履约中若有争议,在中国仲裁。”B公司当
上市公司的盈利性会影响股价变动,而衡量盈利性最常用的指标包括()。Ⅰ.销售收益率Ⅱ.每股收益Ⅲ.净资产收益率Ⅳ.资产周转率
商业银行组织架构是银行(包括一切机构和部门)按照一定的()组成的一个有机系统。
甲公司为了开发新的项目,急需筹资20000万元,甲公司拟采取发行附带认股权证债券的方式筹资并初拟了筹资方案,相关资料如下:(1)发行10年期附认股权证债券20万份,每份债券面值为1000元,票面利率为6%,每年年末付息一次,到期还本。债券按面值发行,
著作权法保护的作品包括()。
写实绘画雅俗共赏,亦容易出现弊端。种种弊端正在败坏中国还没有成熟的艺术市场。反过来,不成熟的艺术市场与不重视绘画审美的收藏机构又混乱了艺术的真价值。某些肤浅媚俗、苍白琐碎的作品亵渎了写实绘画的学术名声,某些概念化符号化的简单形象泛化了写实绘画的学术价值和精
Directions:Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessayentitledOnDialects.Youshouldincludeinyoures
最新回复
(
0
)