In case anyone's interested, some time commenter on Troppo and IP analyst turned impresario of rupute Duncan Bucknell asked me to participate in a podcast on manufacturing for export - one of my causes du jour.  So feel free to have a listen if you like. Of course there are genuine conflicts of interest between patent holders and consumers.  But it's pretty infuriating to watch patent holders acting so strongly against their own interest as Big Pharma are here, demonstrating the hollowness of their pitch that providing more IP protection will increase investment.