Patent Baristas

Those who know me know I have an attention span that’s measured in microseconds. Therefore, when people started talking about podcasts and podcasting as “the next big thing”, I let out a groan thinking this would be yet another thing I wouldn’t be able to pay attention to long enough to benefit. But after giving […]

Damon Darlin at B2Day posted a note about Postal Watch being up in arms about the Postal Service using Special Cancellations of stamps with little characters from the animated movie, Robots. I have to admit, this is one of those items that seems like an abuse of governmental powers. Actually, I don’t think it is […]

Boston Scientific Corp. announced that a jury in Delaware found that one of the company’s cardiovascular stents infringed on a patent held by Johnson & Johnson. Monetary damages will be determined in a later hearing and there are likely to be post-verdict motions and hearings, as well as an appeal. During an earlier trial of […]

The National Academies’ National Research Council has come out encouraging the National Institutes of Health to foster independence among postdoctoral scholars, entry-level faculty, staff scientists, and other new investigators in biomedical research by improving their training and giving them more resources to pursue their own projects. In case you think this is not a problem, […]

There seems to be quite a few protests of India’s passage this week of a new patent law that prevents domestic drug companies from making low-cost generics of expensive Western medicines, saying millions of poor people across the world will be affected. The changes in patent rights come from India’s membership in the World Trade […]

A Canadian court ruled in favor of Sanofi-Aventis, maker of the top-selling blood thinner Plavix, preventing Apotex from selling a generic version of Plavix in Canada. Plavix is one of the three top-selling drugs in the world with sales of $5.4 billion. Sanofi has a similar suit against Aptoex and Dr. Reddy in the U.S. […]

As brought to light by blogger B2fxxx there was a story in the Economist about a recent study published in Science magazine concerning the viability of gene patents in general. See here. Jordan Paradise and her colleagues at the Illinois Institute of Technology, published a study stating that more than a third of the patents […]

Legal Times published an article detailing the prevalence in the business of corporate espionage using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to gain competitive information. Companies are increasingly turning to teams of hired lawyers and analysts who request all data involving a competitor. Targets have included Boeing, MCI WorldCom Inc., McDonnell Douglas, and the General […]