On Tue, 31 Oct 2000, Rachel Myr wrote:
> Writing, as always, from my feelings, I can say that I feel profoundly
> offended by the notion that any person could patent a component of breast
> milk with an eye to making a profit on it.  In my simple world view, patents
> are for inventions, to be taken out by the inventor.  I definitely do not
> want to see a discussion on Lactnet on who that is, as I believe each of us
> has the right to give that credit where she feels it is due without regard
> to what others believe.

Technically, they are not patenting the component itself, but the method
of producing it.  But the patent will be written broadly enough to cover
any reasonably similar method of producing the component, and thus
colloquially, it is referred to as a patent on the component, since it is
highly unlikely that someone else will come up with a way to produce it
that is not already covered by the patent (except of course, the way it is
made by mothers around the world every day).

My feelings are that if someone could patent a way to make something from
breastmilk that would alleviate disease and suffering, they deserve to
make a profit from it, and if no one made any money from it, it would very
likely never have gotten made in the first place.

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