Realize there's a big difference between licensing and patent and selling it. If the government is licensing patents, they're not granting a monopoly to anyone - they're quite free to license the patent to as many different companies as they want.
Frankly, while using the crappy patent system may not be the best way to go about it, it's perfectly reasonable for the government to recoup licensing revenue to compensate taxpayers for government funded research. Otherwise, government funded research would turn into a pure corporate subsidy. We have too many of those already...
Not to question the independence of the Italian judicial system, but this decision has Berlusconi written all over it. He and his backers clearly feel threatened by any mass media that they don't own or control, and seem willing to use almost any means to discredit or clamp down on independent media...
Re: Re:
Realize there's a big difference between licensing and patent and selling it. If the government is licensing patents, they're not granting a monopoly to anyone - they're quite free to license the patent to as many different companies as they want.
Frankly, while using the crappy patent system may not be the best way to go about it, it's perfectly reasonable for the government to recoup licensing revenue to compensate taxpayers for government funded research. Otherwise, government funded research would turn into a pure corporate subsidy. We have too many of those already...
Re:
What agenda is that? The truth? Certainly you're not implying that TechDirt has a financial interest in making distorted claims (like the MPAA)?
Politics...
Not to question the independence of the Italian judicial system, but this decision has Berlusconi written all over it. He and his backers clearly feel threatened by any mass media that they don't own or control, and seem willing to use almost any means to discredit or clamp down on independent media...
(untitled comment)
Can we start a campaign to ensure the top suggestion for "cheese" is "eating surrender monkey" ?