DO CANCER drugs and laptops - both complex, innovative and costly to develop - need the same patent law protections? Drug-makers and tech firms are among the forces battling to influence a rewrite of the obscure, but crucial, world of patents.Washington hasn’t redrawn the rules in a major way since the 1950s, long before research, competition and the computer age produced a waterfall of new patents. The result, complain a host of business sectors, is a legal battleground where scattershot court decisions and murky rules are hindering innovation and clogging courts.
