Two Nobel Prize winners want to cancel their own CRISPR patents in Europe

They learned from the best

https://www.history.com/news/industrial-revolution-spies-eur...

Germany did the same with book rights which helped them to become an industrial and scientific powerhouse.

The Netherlands was the last country in Europe to introduce patent law AFTER Philips stole bulb manufacturing technology from Edison (Philips is now a huge patent holder and actively steals ideas from startups to turn them into patents).

If you can't innovate, steal.

History shows us you copy first to build a foundation, refine and then innovate.

This was Japan's recent-ish narrative arc too, after all.

This is the proverbial standing on the shoulders of Giants, which we all do every day

Some people remembering things and going elsewhere and using what they remember seems a little different from copying of millions of documents and schematics and plans.

You do not like efficiency??

what's the difference? that they didn't use paper for schematics? it's the same process, isn't it?

If you can't innovate, buy (or steal) someone else's invention, and use a government granted monopoly (i.e. patent) to prevent anyone else from innovating further and making a better version.

Maybe patents provide an incentive to be innovative, but they also create a barrier to innovating on top of technology that is protected by patents.

Yes, I guess it is very efficient to not need to spend any money on R&D, and just steal from those who do spend the money.

Will anyone spend money on R&D in this efficient world when the result is you just go out of business because you can't compete against anyone who does?

I'd say it is the same difference between a police officer remembering a license plate for the getaway car of a bank robbery, and having pervasive automatic surveillance tracking everywhere everyone goes.