curious who Wellcome and Celera really are? (Score 1)

Opinion: I think our patent system is too broken to be appropriately used for genetics (or IT of other kinds).

Facts: I found these quotes helpful in understanding the details of this particular story:

"The Wellcome Trust is the world's largest medical research charity with an annual spend of £400 million. The Wellcome Trust supports more than 3,000 researchers, at 300 locations, in 30 different countries..." --http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/1/awtprerel0999n150 .html

"We derive revenues primarily from subscription fees from database customers who will retain the rights to any discoveries made using Celera databases. This policy is intended to promote use of our information by a wide variety of users and distinguish Celera Genomics from other companies that seek intellectual property rights to customers' discoveries based solely upon access to those companies' database information. " --http://www.celera.com/CeleraUpClose/SoundBusines sModel.shtm