The Patent Wars
Realizador Hannah Leonie Prinzler
Países Germany
Duração 80 min
Sinopse
On October 7 2012, the New York Times comes with the front page headline, Patents, Used as a Sword – conveying to a larger audience what a few observers have been claiming for a while: There is a global war going on. It is a war that sees patents as strategic weapons, in which terrain is being mined with patents and where patents surface and submerge as submarines. For the very first time in 2012 giant technology companies like Apple and Google have invested more money into patent infringement law-suits than they have spent for the development of new innovations. But it is not a virtual war being fought only over market shares and equity prices. Even normal people like the breast cancer patient Lisbeth Ceriani can suddenly come into the firing line: It is rather shocking that the American Patent Office chose to give a patent on a gene. So I have a gene inside of me that my doctor is not allowed to look at because the company Myriad owns the patent on the gene., How is it possible that plants, cells and genes are patented at all? Our search for answers takes us all around the globe. Along our journey into the world of patents we meet British inventor James Dyson and American business gurus in the Silicon Valley. We discover the war strategies that patent attorneys apply and hear Lisbeth Ceriani’s shocking story of her body’s gene that she doesn’t own. In Geneva, we visit the world’s headquarter of patents and travel to India, the world’s largest manufacturer of generic, meaning patent free, medicines. We show what India has, come up with to protect its genetic resources and meet Anil Gupta, the “Gandhi of, Innovation”. Are patents the only incentive to inspire innovation? At the end of our, journey we will find out in the desert in Arizona where a bunch of enthusiasts are building the world’s first open-source car.
On October 7 2012, the New York Times comes with the front page headline, Patents, Used as a Sword – conveying to a larger audience what a few observers have been claiming for a while: There is a global war going on. It is a war that sees patents as strategic weapons, in which terrain is being mined with patents and where patents surface and submerge as submarines. For the very first time in 2012 giant technology companies like Apple and Google have invested more money into patent infringement law-suits than they have spent for the development of new innovations. But it is not a virtual war being fought only over market shares and equity prices. Even normal people like the breast cancer patient Lisbeth Ceriani can suddenly come into the firing line: It is rather shocking that the American Patent Office chose to give a patent on a gene. So I have a gene inside of me that my doctor is not allowed to look at because the company Myriad owns the patent on the gene., How is it possible that plants, cells and genes are patented at all? Our search for answers takes us all around the globe. Along our journey into the world of patents we meet British inventor James Dyson and American business gurus in the Silicon Valley. We discover the war strategies that patent attorneys apply and hear Lisbeth Ceriani’s shocking story of her body’s gene that she doesn’t own. In Geneva, we visit the world’s headquarter of patents and travel to India, the world’s largest manufacturer of generic, meaning patent free, medicines. We show what India has, come up with to protect its genetic resources and meet Anil Gupta, the “Gandhi of, Innovation”. Are patents the only incentive to inspire innovation? At the end of our, journey we will find out in the desert in Arizona where a bunch of enthusiasts are building the world’s first open-source car.