Raw LLM Responses

A few notes on patents: * Patents are a ***national*** **right** There are no international patents. You can obtain patents in other countries, but their own patent law applies. If you choose not to have a patent in China, then anybody in China can make your invention. EDIT to clarify: International *applications* exist, but these do not provide international rights; you must still pursue a granted patent separately *in each individual country*. If you don't pursue country X through to grant, you don't get rights in country X. * The deal is: You **publicly disclose instructions** on making your invention work. In return, you get a **limited-time monopoly**. The alternative situation is that companies *never* disclose their trade secrets, which means nobody else can benefit from that research. Patents encourage progress in this way, since information is publicly available from early on. * National governments can normally **mandate a license** for a patent or may require that the patent is "worked" *in their country* This means that, in cases like this, countries could require licenses be issued to manufacturers. The terms for these licenses vary. That would make it legal to produce and distribute the invention *in that country*. If we did away with patents, companies would either keep inventions a trade secret or they would stop developing them as they became unprofitable. Quick opinion - happy to be corrected if the above or below conclusion aren't right. Developing countries that want to use patented technology can. Nobody is able to stop them. What they **cannot** do is **export those vaccines** to a country with a valid patent... and that seems pretty reasonable in light of the above.