There's more to the story than I knew.
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It’s a topical question during this COVID-19 pandemic: why are the companies that developed the vaccines against the coronavirus not giving away their patent on the vaccines for the greater good? Why aren’t governments forcing pharmaceutical companies to license other companies to share their patented invention under a compulsory license arrangement?
To support that idea, people like to bring to memory the history of the invention of the vaccine against polio. Heard of Jonas Salk or Albert Sabin? Jonas Salk became a hero when he invented the vaccine against polio, a worldwide disease affecting young children, paralyzing between 20,000 and 50,000 children annually. Although it was the first polio vaccine, it was not to be the last, as Albert Sabin introduced an oral vaccine in the 1960s that replaced Salk’s.
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The "I have a dream" speech is copyrighted, controlled by the MLK estate. You would think its words should be part of the common language of mankind, especially given the very public venue where it was delivered. But the MLK estate claims they need copyright control to prevent say, Qanaon t-shirts from mis-representing (and profiting), off King's words. And yes, to raise money for the King estate. So perhaps similar motivations drove the Salk attorneys.
Posted by: greg b | November 30, 2021 at 10:38