Word: patent
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...basic eight-stud red Lego brick was first sold in Denmark in 1949. But it took a further nine years for Ole Kirk's son, Godtfred Kirk, to file the patent for the versatile "Automatic Binding Brick" with its interlocking 2x4 studs. The plastic bricks are part of a unique system: tiny tubes inside give the knobs on top of other blocks more places to grip. They hold together well but can be taken apart easily by a child. And consistency has been key: the bricks produced today have the same bumps and holes, and can still interlock with those...
...January 28, 1958, that then-Lego head Godtfred Kirk Christiansen filed a patent for the iconic plastic brick with its stud-and-hole design. Since then, the company has made a staggering 400 billion Lego elements, or 62 bricks for every person on the planet. And if stacked on top of one another, the pieces would form 10 towers reaching all the way from the Earth to the Moon...
...Growth in the number of patent applications worldwide each year...
...Kroes admitted that there was no direct evidence of wrongdoing, but she suspected some problems. According to industry figures, the number of novel medicines reaching the market has tumbled over time, from an annual average of 40 between 1995 and 1999, to 28 between 2000 and 2004. "Patent protection has never been stronger, but the number of new pharmaceuticals coming to market is declining," she said. "Without new pharmaceuticals, the quality of some medical treatments will stagnate; without generic products, the cost of some medical treatments will remain high...
...Kroes said the probe was partly triggered by her 2005 fine on AstraZeneca of €60 million ($88m) after the Commission found the company had delayed market entry of a rival ulcer drug by misleading authorities over the expiration of its patent...