> to publish it so the world can benefit from it.
Isn’t that exactly the idea of a patent? Instead of keeping the invention a trade secret (occasionally a viable alternative) you publish the invention, and the inventor (and in general, the supporting institutions) can get rewarded if someone plans to use the idea commercially. Someone (in academia often the tax payer) did pay for the work after all, and having an option to recover the money (or god forbid, make a profit…) seems a reasonable proposition…. Best, BR From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of Abhishek Anan Sent: Saturday, November 4, 2017 05:31 To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Regarding Patents I second Gert's thoughts.... Best, Abhishek On Sat, Nov 4, 2017 at 10:21 AM, Gert Vriend <gerrit.vri...@radboudumc.nl <mailto:gerrit.vri...@radboudumc.nl> > wrote: A related question. If you have a crystal structure and found a novel ligand binding site that can be used to regulate protein activity, could you patent such "binding site"? If not, how to make the best use of such findings? I would say that the best one can do with important novel data/information/knowledge/insights is to publish it so the world can benefit from it. Gert
