Canada's Supreme Court Tosses Viagra Patent For Vagueness 100
Freshly Exhumed writes "In a 7-to-0 decision, the Supreme Court Of Canada has ruled that Pfizer Canada Inc.'s patent on well-known erectile dysfunction remedy Viagra is now invalid due to insufficient information in Pfizer's patent application. The upshot is that competitors can now manufacture cheaper, generic versions of Viagra for sale in Canada."
Fantastic (Score:5, Insightful)
My favourite part of the whole thing:
Damn straight.
Software next (Score:5, Insightful)
It looks like this decision is that a greedy company tried bending the rules and were punished. Normally the sense that I get from situations like these that such judgements don't happen because of the whole corporations are the backbone of the country crap so the punishments are usually a tiny portion of the profits from the misbehavior. To lose the viagra patent ought to deflate their profits in Canada (still can't stop).
This is the magical aspect of modern corporations they think that it is somehow good to work every angle, to twist every law, and bend every regulation. It is almost as if they feel bad about themselves if they aren't screwing someone somehow. This is a perfect case in point. Viagra is the wet dream of any big Pharma (on a roll now) a normal patent would have been solid and made them bazillions of dollars; but no they had to squeeze another nickle or dime out of the patent so they risked it all. Viagra also fell into their lap as it was a crappy heart drug that had an interesting side effect. If I were a major shareholder I would demand that the company reevaluate itself to see if a more ethical approach would result in less overall risk.