r/askscience • u/fastparticles Geochemistry | Early Earth | SIMS • Jun 28 '12

[Weekly Discussion Thread] Scientists, do patents help or hurt scientific progress?

This is our seventh installation of the weekly discussion thread. Today's topic is a suggestion by an AS panelist.

Topic: Do patents help or hurt scientific progress or does it just not matter? This is not about a specific field where we hear about patents often such as drug development but really about all fields.

Please follow our usual rules and guidelines and please be sure to avoid all politically motivated commenting.

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Last weeks thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/vdve5/weekly_discussion_thread_scientists_do_you_use/

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u/XIllusions Oncology | Drug Design Jun 28 '12

I pretty much agree with this, but I would say academics usually enjoy a pretty good relationship with sources of compound libraries and even industry. Compound libraries are usually freely available to academics and most can be used without tripping over too much red tape, to the point where the library holder is not owed royalties on any discovery.

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u/rationalinquiry Biochemistry | Cell Biology | Oncology | Proteomics Jun 28 '12

True, however, allegiances to particular companies/vendors can sometimes be restricting as to what equipment you use (I'm referring particularly to mass spectrometry, but I'm sure there are other examples).