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<kanzure>
eleitl is trying to do diy production of microelectrode arrays. anyone have experience in this area?
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<diginet>
god I hate patents
<diginet>
not saying the idea doesn't have merit, at least theoretically, but it's just gotten ridiculous now
<soul-d>
lol what did they try to patent this time ?
<azonenberg>
method of exercising a cat? ;)
<Sync_>
:D
<diginet>
so I was reading about various processes of purifying silicon, just out of curiosity (I don't know much on the specific, well, didn't, I know more now)
<diginet>
anyway, I come across this company which claims to have invented some eco-friendly (should have been a red flag right there) way to make solar-grade silicon from silica, instead of starting from metallurgical grade
<diginet>
anyway, their "unique process" is just reacting silica with lye in aqueous solution to make sodium silicate and then running the solution through some ion exchange columns to remove impurities
<diginet>
except, that very same process has been used for at /least/ 60 years to extract silica from agro waste (like rice hulls)
<diginet>
how in the hell did these idiots manage to patent an extremely elementary method in chemistry that any first or second year undergrad could do?
<diginet>
utter insanity
<Sync_>
well probably their process has something special
<diginet>
no, it doesn't
<diginet>
the only "difference" is that they use an column for boron and phosphorus, but they didn't invent either of the resins
<diginet>
*a column
<Sync_>
yeah but they changed that there and thus they can patent their process
<diginet>
that's absurd
<diginet>
you shouldn't be able to patent *basic* methods in synthetic chemistry
<Sync_>
huh
<Sync_>
they patented the process
<diginet>
yes, they patented "their" method of purifying silica, except they didn't invent anything
<Sync_>
hm, purifiying SiHCl3 is not that hard
<Sync_>
well they innovated by putting the dopants in there
<Sync_>
bam, pantentable
<diginet>
they're not TCS
<diginet>
an extremely common method of purifying silica from biological sources is to burn it, then put the ash in concentrated solution of NaOH, and then use ion exchangers to purify the resulting sodium silicate and then hydrolyse that to make silica and lye again
<diginet>
they patented something which has been for 40-50 years at least
<Sync_>
yeah but they put boron and p in there
<Sync_>
which is new
<Sync_>
or not patented already
<diginet>
no they didn't, they just decided to specifically try and remove B and P
<Sync_>
well I guess they have something special to their process
<Sync_>
nukem gmbh patented a pressure cooker for nuclear materials
<diginet>
I'm just sick of these absurd patents in the first place
<diginet>
the thing is, there's no such thing as individual research
<diginet>
all inventions are necessarily collaborative
<diginet>
what really irks me is tax dollar grant money being used to fund research which is then patented. No, it should be public domain
<diginet>
I'm sick of public money being swindled by universities to VC crap
<azonenberg>
diginet: This is why i'm using the "scorched earth" IP policy for my research
<azonenberg>
publish early and often so nobody has a hope at patenting it