Patent Baristas

The Food and Drug Administration will publish draft guidelines today that would encourage companies to submit voluntary safety evaluations of bioengineered food crops that sometimes drift and cross-pollinate withplants in nearby fields. The biotech industry welcomed the new approach, but environmental and food-safety advocates called it a poor substitute for the rigorous testing they have […]

Without comment, the Supreme Court has declined to review a Federal Circuit decision on a University of Rochester patent involving the discovery of a separate cox-2 gene and related biological processes.  The University had petitioned the Court to hear the case after a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court, in February, upheld a lower […]

Now that we’re all stuffed with turkey, I thought it was timely to note an AP article on the research into perfecting the turkey.  Most turkeys have been selectively bred for their white meat for so long that even walking can be a problem for many of the big-breasted birds and sex is no longer […]

Of note for those of us that regularly deal with university inventions, and inventors, a Chemistry professor has filed a lawsuit against the University of Pennsylvania alleging that it deprived him of profits from technology he developed. Professor Michael Therien accuses the University of failing to live up to its obligation to commercialize his technology, […]

For everyone who’s wished they had a patent on something ubiquitous, there was a recent article on Bill Holloway who has a patent on a formula for water – and four more pending. About this point, you’re thinking: "Isn’t the formula H20?" Apparently, the company Penta is the leading pure-water company at health food stores. […]

The USPTO clarified its position concerning the treatment of petitions to withdraw a holding of abandonment that are not timely filed because the applicant failed to exercise reasonable diligence in monitoring the status of the application. The USPTO receives petitions under 37 CFR 1.181(a) to withdraw holdings of abandonment (based on non-receipt of an Office […]

US District Court Judge Mark Wolf dismissed patent claims filed by several biotechnology companies (including Genzyme Corp. and Biogen Idec Inc.) against Columbia University that alleged the New York school was improperly trying to extend its rights to a process widely used to engineer new drugs. Columbia had collected several hundred million dollars over the […]

A proposal in Arizona to allow universities to enter partnerships with corporations was defeated despite no organized opposition and widespread support from prominent groups and top elected officials from both political parties. The proposition, defeated 52 to 48%, was to amend the Arizona Constitution, which prohibits the state government from becoming a shareholder or joint […]