Kennedy on patent reform: "it comes down to who has more lobbyists."

The Boston Business Journal encapsulated patent reform 2007 in quoting Senator Ted Kennedy:

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said today [June 18] that the biotech and traditional high tech industries need to come to agreement about how patent laws should be updated rather than pursue conflicting agendas through Congress.

He said the two sectors should work it out themselves -- otherwise, "it comes down to who has more lobbyists."


LBE had noted in his talk on patent reform on June 8, 2007:

Henry Ford said he believed in abolishing patents, but he got patents. California stem cell researchers complain in 2007 about the WARF / Thomson patents, but they tried to patent the same thing. Congress has to distinguish special interest problems from universal issues.

(...)

Congress, in addressing reform, has to distinguish problems in the system from the advocacy of special interest groups.

IPBiz notes that Kennedy has the right idea on this point.

**Update on 26 Aug 09.

On Ted Kennedy's career:
The Death of Ted Kennedy: The Brother Who Mattered Most