If you have a mechanism for making the patent freely available to Canadians only that's fine.
But if the taxpayers who funded the research have to license the technology to use it, that's just robbery.
But if the taxpayers who funded the research have to license the technology to use it, that's just robbery.
Maybe this is "robbery" (which is not what that word means), but you still get the benefits of living near open space (no car-owners living there, trees turning CO2 into oxygen, bees pollinating your flowers), etc. All in all, it doesn't seem too bad. (It is $26 a round, btw.)
Research universities fill a similar role. They are good to have around, even if you can't monetize their research for free. There are other benefits.
> Research universities fill a similar role. They are good to have around, even if you can't monetize their research for free. There are other benefits.
I did not claim that the downside of granting patents to universities is so large that universities should not exist at all. Only that it would be better and more just to not grant them patents based on publicly funded research.