. . . meanwhile in the UK, a blow against "stifing patents"

This, in today's Financial Times: Call to restrict 'stifling' patents:

An international group of academics, scientists and artists has called for strict limits on patents and copyrights, concerned that the spread of intellectual property protection is suppressing knowledge and stifling creativity.

A charter on intellectual property (IP), developed by the Royal Society of Arts in London, calls for an automatic presumption against creating new protection or extending existing rules.

It also argues that patents and copyrights should not be allowed to apply to computer code, business processes, scientific theories or abstract data.

Today's intellectual property regime was "radically out of line with modern technological, economic and social trends", said the charter.

The story refers to the Adelphi Charter on Creativity, Innovation and Intellectual Property released yesterday in London. The charter "promotes a new, fair, user-friendly and efficient way of handing out intellectual property rights in the 21st century."

As anyone who has followed this blog knows, I believe that our IPR system is out of kilter and need to be re-balanced to meet the needs of users and producers in the I-Cubed Economy. Given that the Royal Society of Arts has stepped up to the issue, let's hope that there is some serious discussion of the matter.