The desire to fingerprint an idea, discovery or an invention is as innate to humans as the desire to own tangible wealth. Leonardo da Vinci wrote down his thoughts in a mirror-imaged script so that no one else could steal the authorship. Authorship and not monetary considerations were dear to scientists and thinkers. Madame Curie refused to patent her invention “Radium”. She suffered considerable financial losses but humanity benefited by her largesse. Patents are about fingerprinting an idea or an invention so that ownership is clearly established.
Indeed sometimes it means a gateway to accumulating wealth. There are nearly two million patents in the repository. Only a few of them have the potential to be of any commercial value. Patents could be on the product or the process itself. India which is a signatory to WTO and TRIPS has introduced patenting the product. This shift in policy…