Now That the MMSE Is Under Copyright

Scales and questionnaires under copyright: additional barriers to health research

“…1,2 Despite the importance of these research instruments to study different settings and populations, either to validate them or to enhance data gathering and data interpretation quality, a current situation is raising concerns: the employment of copyright protection to enforce the request for payment in exchange for use authorization. [1][2][3][4] A quite old and well-known instrument used in medication adherence research, the Morisky scale, had its newest versions MMAS-8 e MMAS-4 protected by copyright in the recent years. 3,5,6 Copyright holders have been selling licenses for using scale in research and even in clinical practice.…”

“…These restrictions led to the MiniMental oblivion in textbooks and clinical manuals. 4,[8][9][10] There are similarities between these two cases. Both implicate highly popular, commonly used, well-known scales, as well as the conversion of a public domain instrument to a licensure pay-walled regime.…”

“…This trend goes against movements in favor of free access to knowledge and open science, which argue that this excessive protection of intellectual property is a barrier to the dissemination and collective construction of knowledge, that excludes countries and populations from the benefits of scientific research that should move forward through an international, integrative and collaborative effort. 3,4,[7][8][9][10][11][12] In Brazil, copyright regulations do not support monetary rights for questionnaire developers, once "questionnaires to be filled with any type of information, scientific or not, as well as their instructions" are not amenable to protection as copyright. 13 However, given the international characteristic of scientific production dissemination and of the necessarily public characteristic of scientific publishing, authors and editors may be restrained or besieged (monetarily, morally or legally) if they select for their studies these research instruments under copyright restrictions.…”