Posts tagged with ‘intellectual property’
A U.S. District Court judge ruled Monday that a gene patent lawsuit filed against the Patent and Trademark Office could move forward. At issue are patents exclusively licensed by Myriad Genetics for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Mutations of the genes are strongly linked to significant risks of breast cancer. The suit, lead by the [...]
Controversies over gene patents often ignore the lack of evidence that they impede basic research. The more important concern may be the negative impact of the push to commercialize science.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Tuesday against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Myriad Genetics, and the University of Utah, arguing that patents for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are invalid. Mutations in the two genes are responsible for a large number of hereditary forms of breast and ovarian cancer. Myriad holds a [...]
“Open innovation” challenges the assumptions made by university technology transfer offices about maximizing the value of their intellectual property.
Patenting unmodified genes rewards discovery, not invention. We must prohibit the process and invalidate all claims to unmodified genes to facilitate more open science.
The backlog at the United States Patent Office is 1 million applications long. This means that it takes almost 33 months for examiners to decide up or down on an application’s status. For sectors like communications where innovation moves at a particularly brisk clip, that “patent pending” period can be 44 months—a virtual eternity. A [...]
Inventions are being created at an ever-increasing pace and have grown increasingly complex, but the rules governing patents have not seen substantial change in decades. As a result, the system is bogged down, hampering investment and job creation. Here’s how to fix things.
In the new print edition: Developing Regional Centers of Innovation, Tackling the Challenge of Patent Reform, and Government Contracting Run Amok.
Scientific research and technological development have long been mainstays of American economic and military strength. Today more than ever, the global economic crisis and the prospect of a long and deep U.S. recession call for a reinvigoration of America’s scientific, engineering, and manufacturing enterprises.
By far, the most significant and destabilizing change in the patent environment since 2003 has been the dramatic increase in the growth, financing, and patent acquisitions of so called non-practicing entities, or “patent trolls.”
The new administration must provide proper patent incentives and thoughtful financial support for science and technology to germinate in communities around the country.
We will release the Fall/Winter 2008-2009 print edition of Science Progress next Monday, January 12. This issue will feature entirely new content on regional centers of innovation, patent reform, and government contracting of scientific and technological work.
At the end of last week, Reuters reported that the European Patent Office issued its final ruling rejecting a patent application for the stem cell technology based on the work of James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin. Filed in 1995 by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the patent, according to the EPO release “describes a method for obtaining embryonic stem cell cultures from primates, including humans.”
Want to clean up the patent mess? Start by admitting government can’t know everything. Then put the public on the task.
The Senate Finance Committee revisited the problems in international intellectual property rights protection without offering solutions or new points to consider. The conflict between IP protection and the benefits of sharing drugs and technology with developing nations will become even more pertinent as clean energy technologies are perfected.
The “markets” for scholarly works are changing, and scholars in the humanities and social sciences – and the institutions where they work – need to both take control of how their works are published and distributed and become much more actively involved in setting the terms for the digital publishing world.
On Tuesday, a Virginia district court rejected new U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rules intended to rein in the current patent application backlog. The ruling comes as a relief to companies involved in technically complex industries, especially biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms.
While patent reform legislation sits in Congress, the biggest hurdle to protecting intellectual property may simply be the lack of satisfied, qualified examiners at the U.S. Patent Office, says a new GAO report.
Free Patents? That’s the idea behind an effort to foster the promulgation of eco-friendly technology and spur innovation in the environmental sustainability arena. The “Eco-Patent Commons” initiative, a project of the World Council for Sustainable Development, goes online today, already boasting thirty-one publicly-available patents from electronics giants like IBM, Sony, Nokia, and Pitney Bowes.
Tracking broadband speeds for the FCC; bioterrorism sensors in NYC; China revises its patent policy.
The Bush Administration continues to censor scientists. The AP has the latest on extensive revisions made to the testimony of CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday on the health impacts of climate change.
The Guardian reported this past weekend that J. Craig Venter will soon announce that he has created artificial life. But even his spokesperson is saying that’s not the whole story.
