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The comment regarding the inability to patent a naturally occuring substance is misleading. Actually one can patent a naturally occurring substance. Consider, if I discover that Vitamin C is a great fuel additive that keeps gasoline from 'going stale' (it does become gummy by the way), I can patent Vitamin C as a fuel additive.

Thus, if someone finds that a naturally occuring substance keeps one from becoming wrinkled, then that substance can be patented for use in anti-wrinkle creams and pills, etc.

I second motion regarding paying for products that result from basic R&D. If researchers, or their investors, don't get a return on their investment, they have no incentive to do the research in the first place.

Or, they will work like crazy to keep their discovery secret, which will hurt further research by others. When Gutenberg printed his books, he tried to keep his process a secret. The printing press was too big to hide well, but the recipe, using naturally occuring substances, of course, for his ink, the best there was for centuries, was lost when he died. A crying shame, all for the want of a good patent!

This is the bargain that society is making with inventors and researchers. A patent gives the right to a legal monopoly to a discovery for 20 years, in exchange for FULL disclosure regarding that discovery. Society benefits with faster pace of development, without fear that secret discoveries may be lost, and researchers/inventors benefit with a fair return for a reasonable period of time.

--Candice H. Brown Elliott