We seem to be more excited about patents than categories! I guess opinions are cheaper than theorems... I'd say that citation is the academic form of currency. Here's a dictionary: Academia: Academics rush to publish before their colleagues. Industry: Companies rush to patent before their competition. Academia: Academics get quite upset if you use their ideas without citing them. Industry: Companies sue you if you use their patents without paying them. Academia: A generous academic lets you publish his idea (yeah, right). Industry: A generous businessman lets you profit from his idea (yeah, right). Academia: You can publish improvements to someone's basic idea. Industry: You can patent improvements to someone's basic idea. So you can see why I find the academic "high horse" attitude towards patents a bit hypocritical. BTW, here's a difference between academia and industry, which comes about because money is more flexible than time: Academia: An academic *cannot* give you any credit for his existing publication. Industry: A company *can* let you profit from its existing patent. David [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]