It is commonly thought that patents are good because people reveal secrets rather than keeping them. But they keep secrets about intermediate results so that they can be first to patent. Via Pedro Dal Bo %26lt;a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/jay_bradner_open_source_cancer_research.html"%26gt;a remarkable video%26lt;/a%26gt; about what happens when pharmaceutical discoveries aren't kept secret. It's a bit ironic that people think that for pharmaceuticals patents are the only answer.
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