News

Patent Protest Erupts over Human Stem Cell Research
Deutsche Welle, December 28, 2006
German laws regarding embryonic stem cells are some of the most restrictive in the world, and recently a German court partially reversed approval for a patent to a German scientist for his stem-cell research methods.
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Supreme Court to Rule in Pivotal Patent Case
Laura Cutland, East Bay Business Times, December 1, 2006
Leaders of the biotech industry are keeping a close eye on a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that could have major repercussions on their patents.
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How Gene Patents are Putting Your Health at Risk
Lyric Wallwork Winik, Parade, November 26, 2006
A fifth of your genes belong to someone else. That's because the U.S. Patent Office has given various labs, companies, and universities the rights to 20% of the genes found in everyone's DNA ‹ with some disturbing results.
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Working with Stem Cells? Pay Up
Glenn McGee, The Scientist, November 14, 2006
In August 2001, bioethicist Glenn McGee stated before a U.S. Senate subcommittee that as much as half of stem cell revenue would likely end up going to patent holders because of absurd patents on the human embryo.
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Was Stem-cell Advance 'Obvious'?
David Wahlberg, Wisconsin State Journal, October 16, 2006
A federal review of Wisconsin's embryonic stem-cell patents will not question what everyone concedes: that University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist James Thomson was the first to grow a colony of the cells from humans in a lab.
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Stem Cell Patents Get a Review
Bernadette Tansey, San Francisco Chronicle, October 4, 2006
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has agreed to re-evaluate the validity of three core stem-cell patents held by a Wisconsin foundation that has been accused of strangling U.S. research in the field due to its demands for license fees and royalties.
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Free Stem Cells for All?
New Scientist, October 3, 2006
Free stem cells for all? Possibly, now that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is re-examining key patents on human embryonic stem cells that some say have been stifling stem-cell research.
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Body of Research - Ownership and Use of Human Tissue
R. Alta Charo, New England Journal of Medicine, October 15, 2006
Nearly 20 years after the California courts decided Moore v. Regents - a seminal case concerning a patient's interest in the profits derived from patents on a cell line generated from his spleen tissue - U.S. jurisprudence still has no coherent answer to a deceptively simple question: Do we own our own bodies?
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IBM Tackles US Patent Chaos
Andrew Charlesworth, vnunet.com, September 28, 2006
Innovations in the field of gene research have led IBM to overhaul its patent application procedures in hopes reducing the number of patent disputes that end up in court.
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Commodifying Life and Its Critics
Michael Rosen, TCS Daily, September 5, 2006
An attorney commentator defends the patenting of life forms.
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Patent Offending:
Does Legal Ownership of Genes, Stem Cells, and other Biological Material Go Beyond the Pale?
Scott LaFee, www.SignOnSanDiego.com, April 19, 2006
This article relates the story of John Moore, who, in the 1980s, was the first person to file a lawsuit alleging fraud and loss of financial benefit from patents derived from his leukemia-affected tissues. Moore lost his suit, and the California Supreme Court later ruled that humans have no proprietary right to blood and tissue removed from their bodies.
As the science of biotechnology has progressed, patent law has extended its reach to life science applications with ever-increasing speed. Every gene in the human genome has been patented. As a result, a major debate has erupted as to the efficacy of such a patent regime.
Lori B. Andrews, co-founder of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future, is cited in the article.
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Patent Office as Thought Police
Lori B. Andrews, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 17, 2006
A patent case set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this term, Laboratory Corporation of American Holdings v. Metabolite Laboratories, Inc., may impede academic freedom.
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Are Gene Patents in the Public Interest?
Sue Mayer, GeneWatch UK (bio-itworld.com), February 8, 2006
This article discusses possible implications patenting genes, plants, and seeds have on developing countries. Several organizations have undertaken studies that analyze the gene patent process and resulting impact on society.
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Discovery of New Gene for Rare Nerve Disease May Help Doctors Understand More Common Illnesses
St. Louis University Press Release, EurekAlert.net, January 31, 2006
A St. Louis University researcher has applied for an international gene patent after discovering the gene mutation that results in a rare neurological disorder, Charcot-Marie tooth disease.
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