> I have no objection to patent rights being sold to 
> corporations (though
> only allowing one company to use the substance of a patent is contrary
> to the principles of free trade and innovation).
> 
> as for voluntary agreements, this is the rub.  for many 
> technical people
> entering into such an agreement in return for employment is 
> not optional
> as it has become common practice amongst all major companies (at least
> here in the u.s.), thus if a technical person wishes to be 
> employed in a
> technical field they do not have any real power to negotiate 
> this point
> of their employment.

I think you will have to make up your mind. Free trade (including labour
contracts) or regulations (including patents)?

IMHO the patent principle in itself can help innovation (it has done so
in the past, and still does in some areas like medicine), but the
current practice (trivial patents, court procedures instead of
pre-patent examination) is a serious problem.

In my country (Netherlands) IIRC any idea from an employee that can be
seen as part of his work is automatically (and without extra payment)
owned by his employer, any idea that is beyond this but 'generated'
during work is owned by the employer but a reasonable extra payment is
required, the rest is owned by the employee. A labour contract that
tries to arrange things differently will have serious trouble in court.

Wouter van Ooijen

-- -------------------------------------------
Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
consultancy, development, PICmicro products
docent Hogeschool van Utrecht: www.voti.nl/hvu
 

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