Computer program that could bypass patents to produce synthetic drugs
&gt; In the global industry, some of the best kept secrets are those necessary to make life-saving medication and other pharmaceutical products.<p>What? Patents are not secret. Patents are the opposite of secret. The very word &quot;patent&quot; means &quot;open&quot;. Are drug patents some kind of trick to do the opposite of what a patent is supposed to do?<p>&gt; However, when the researchers designated some atoms and bond as untouchable, the program proposed plans that avoided the patented ones.<p>Can someone explain just exactly how do drug patents work? Can this legally work? I understand that normally patents cover processes or working inventions. I didn&#x27;t think that the precise chemical bonds were required to be produced in the final output of a patent.<p>Also, since apparently the researchers have read the patents in question and designed their software to produce drugs that avoid those patents, have they willfully infringed? Since they were aware of the patent and the process by which the drug worked, so using this knowledge they produced similar drugs that do the same thing?<p>I assume that the researchers know drug patent law well enough and are confident that their method avoids patents, so there&#x27;s obviously a lot I don&#x27;t understand.