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this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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When companies are not able to produce enough to satisfy demand and are actively stopping selling to certain sectors and harming them, they should lose their patents. RAM companies are actively harming all of us by selling their products to the AI companies and leaving us all without RAM, so we should encourage alternatives.
Sure for RAM but holy shit why is not done for medicine?
Because that would be something Jesus would approve of and we can't allow that
Supply Side Jesus would approve.
Of course Jesus is all about the supply side; there's less and less demand for him.
Kinda is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_license?wprov=sfla1
The issue is that the USA threatened to sanction India over issuing compulsory licenses https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/india-faces-us-sanction-threat/articleshow/30309068.cms
The Gates Foundation had strong objections to releasing the covid-19 patents. I'm sure they had some sort of rationale that wasn't "this would set a bad precedent for M$ patents.
It is. It's called Compulsory Licensing.
There is also an FDA Shortage list (most countries have a similar list).
A drug on that list gives the government additional powers to allow companies to work around the parents.
I think this is why there has been so many "off-brand" weight loss drugs recently. Novo Nordisk had supply chain issues with semaglutide, triggering governments to allow other manufacturers
Oh look, 'Murica brain...
It's a common thing in a lot of the world. I've been on many medications throughout the years and all of them have had several options at each of the several drug store companies, and the default is always the cheapest. They always ask "are you ok with another brand?" if there's a cheaper one than the one written on the prescription.
Generics exist in America too.
India did it.
So patents are stopping the whole market competition thing, like what how capitalism is supposed to work and all that.
There should be a ceiling with patents, where if you make 10x back of what it cost your r&d (or whatever 5x of your yearly revenue), the patent should just be considered expired no matter how much time passed.
It should never be an infinite source of money.
Seems like a good idea, but would probably just result in Hollywood accounting so that they never actually make any profit on paper.
Patents in the US only last 20 years on stuff like this, the problem is that lawyers are crafty. So they will patent the formula and then 20 years later the delivery method or something like that. Thus preventing generics for longer than they should be able to.
IP is evil
Only way how capitalism works is that the rich are just becoming the richer by exploiting the poor(er).
OK, but the leak in the article seems to have been in 2016 when conditions were very different.
The RAM industry has been a cartel for decades.
https://www.justice.gov/archive/atr/public/press_releases/2005/212002.htm
Except they stop selling to certain sectors because these sectors pay less. I am pretty sure that if a laptop maker ask to buy the RAM at a 50% higher price than AI companies, the RAM producer will happily sell to them.
And how do you plan to keep these alternatives from selling to the higher bidder, which will probably be a AI company ?