odd copyright issue (medical diagnostic program)

A fellow editor of biomedical literature has posted the following query to me for advice from the members of this listserv; I have promised to forward your answers on to her.

Thank you for your responses.
CBC Cynthia B. Chapman, ELS
Authors & Editors
2025 NW Monroe Avenue
Corvallis, OR 97330
541-602-1031 (cell), 541-757-0713 (fax), 541-757-7620 (home) cbccin[_at_]proaxis.com

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I've encountered a requirement from a copyright owner from whom I have sought permission to reprint something which appalls me. Briefly: my client is being asked to warn readers that they may not make clinical use of a diagnostic screen that is under copyright and that we are reprinting without first getting permission and paying a fee to the copyright owner. (The screen in question is the widely used Mini-Mental State Examination, and the owner of the copyright is a corporation set up by the screen's original author, Dr. Milton Folstein.)

I should emphasize that my objection is not to the normal operation of copyright law and the need for my client, in this instance, to obtain permission before reprinting the MMSE screen. My objection is to this author's attempt to control the CLINICAL use of his screen and to derive income from its application in medical care generally. I see this as both a greedy over-reaching misapplication of copyright law and a move that, unopposed, could stifle scientific and medical progress. (Will every practitionaer have to pay a fee before making clinical use of techniques and treatment approaches described in copyrighted medical literature? What a prospect!)

Are any of you aware of anyone's contesting this proviso by the Mini-Mental LLC (Folstein's corporation)? Or of any hospital or clinic that has agreed to pay the fee before allowing clinicians on staff to administer the MMSE to patients? Or of any court cases challenging this?

Barbara B. Reitt, PhD, ELS(D)
Reitt Editing Services
560 Nall Farm Road
Highlands, NC 28741
(828) 526-9138 (voice & fax) Received on Wed Mar 29 2000 - 23:35:10 GMT