[rescue] Distributed Folding - the Geeks team

[Sheldon T. Hall]

 Phil Stracchino says, inter alia ...
>
> To put it another way, it's my opinion that in order to be able to
> patent something, you must INVENT it (be it a device, a technique, or a
> non-trivial and non-obvious use of commonly-known data), not merely
> DISCOVER it.

I fully support your view on this.

> Absolutely.  But would you give them those cycles in order to enable
> them to be first to have access to basic information, in the knowledge
> that once they had that information, they were going to charge to let
> anyone else have access to it, and they weren't necessarily going to
> ever do anything with the information themselves -- just sit on it
> until someone else invented something, then hold out their hand for a
> share of the profits?

Put that way, probably not.  But, I'd run the risk of their sitting on it in
some cases, in order to have the discoveries made.  I'd also support
changing the patent laws to prevent that sort of squatting.

-Shel