Z:gnu-www-ja-moglen-harvard-speech-2004--3682de-Patent law, unlike copyright l/en

Patent law, unlike copyright law, presents certain features which are egregious for the freedom of technical knowledge. If the copyright law presents a workable form of the great 18th century ambition of the perfectability of human kind, the patent law regrettably does not. This is not surprising, 18th century thinkers were a little dubious about the patent law as well. They had a concern for statutory monopolies and a deep history of English law that made them worry about them very much.