Medical Patents

Here's a scary bit of news ... there's a growing trend in the medical industry of doctors gaining patent protection over surgical techniques, procedures and methods -- then leveraging the courts to enforce their patents in order to gain monetary compensation. Thankfully, this form of patent protection hasn't been used to prevent the practice of medicine -- so patient care has thus far been unaffected. Patent holders have instead been suing medical equipment manufacturers. The fear does exist however, that if this slippery slope is allowed to continue, then surely it's only a matter of time before someone is sued for having a patent-protected procedure used on them.

Another reason why the patent process needs overhauling.