Archive for October, 2005
AP article on “small-time” inventors and patent reform legislation
Last week, several newspapers ran an AP article on so-called “small-time” inventors and the pending patent reform proposals. The story can be accessed at this Washington Post link.
The Professional Inventors Alliance, an interest group for independent and small entity inventors (I don’t think the term “small-time” is accurate), is spotlighted in the article.
A money quote [...]
Compulsory license bill introduced in the US House of Representatives
Representative Sherrod Brown from the great State of Ohio has introduced a bill “to provide for compulsory licensing of certain patented inventions relating to health care emergencies.” (H.R. 4131).
Are compulsory licenses an issue in the United States? You better believe it. Remember, following 9–11 and the subsequent Anthrax scares, the Bush administration considered invoking an existing compulsory [...]
Ex parte Lundgren - Is the issue one of what should be patentable or one of access to prior art?
The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences at the United States Patent and Trademark Office recently issued a precedential opinion holding that there is no separate “technological arts” test when determining whether a claimed invention meets the subject matter requirement of 35 U.S.C. s. 101 (Ex Parte Lundgren, BPAI 2003–2088; view and/or download a .pdf of [...]
Korea advances Tamiflu compulsory license issue
The Korean Food and Drug administration is considering whether it should invoke a compulsory license on Roche’s anti-flu medication, Tamiflu. The agency has sought input from Korean drug manufacturers to determine if any would be capable of making the drug.
This Korean approach, in which a governmental agency appears to be taking the lead role on [...]
Flu knock-offs: a tipping point for the Indian patent system?
Cipla, an Indian pharmaceutical company, made headlines last week when Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, the chairman of Cipla of Bombay, announced that the company was nearly ready to begin production of a generic version of Tamiflu, Roche’s popular influenza medication. The Roche drug is reportedly protected by patents in India (and elsewhere). The clincher for [...]
Cries for compulsory licenses on flu drugs quickly follow on heels of Brazil’s succesful threats
Well, that didn’t take long. On the heels of Brazil’s successful threat to assert TRIPs-backed compulsory licenses for popular AIDS drugs, many people are now claiming that the avian flu scare might warrant the issuance of compulsory licenses:
“It makes sense to do something along the lines of what was done with AIDS drugs.” – Ira [...]
The LexThinkers are at it again….announcing BlawgThink!
My good friends at LexThink, Matt Homann and Dennis Kennedy, are at it again. They’re applying their LexThink model of the re-imagined conference* to legal blogging.
The result — BlawgThink! 2005.
Have a legal blog and want to learn more about blogging and the blogosphere? Want to learn how to do more with your legal blog? Just [...]
An end to the IP drama in Brazil? No chance…more like a beginning
Brazil has been the focus of a fair bit of intellectual property drama in recent months. The Brazilian government has done quite a bit of saber-rattling lately on intellectual property issues, using its willingness to violate intellectual property rights as a sword in its international policy efforts.
A major development that appears to represent an end [...]
House Subcommittee schedules hearing on improving adjudication of patent cases
The House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property has scheduled an oversight hearing, Improving Federal Court Adjudication of Patent Cases, for Thursday, October 6, 2005 at 4:30 PM Eastern.
Is this a patent reform hearing?
Little information is available at this time — there is no agenda or witness list available yet. If it is [...]
