Christopher Hansen, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, has become involved in a patent case for an "abstract idea". The patent in dispute belongs to Bernard L. Bilski: "In 2006, Bilski sought a patent for his idea that the weather risk involved in buying and selling commodities could be minimized if sellers had […]
Under Canadian patent law, the scope of patentable subject matter is still expanding. But under U.S. patent law, “anything under the sun made by man” is patentable. This has come to include patents for computer software. Software patents raise a debate over which algorithms are novel, and which are non-obvious. Some algorithms may arguably have […]
In June 2007, the BBC reported, that scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute had applied to patent the method they plan to use to create their synthetic organism. According to the article, the Institute is claiming exclusive ownership of a set of 381 essential genes believed necessary to keep an organism alive and the […]
In March 2007, the district court in Alexandria, Virginia held that Vonage, a company which uses voice over IP technology, had infringed claims of three patents owned by Verizon Communications, and that those patents were not invalid as obvious. The judgement awarded $58,000,000 in damages and a royalty of 5.5% on any future infringing sales […]
In this age where the advancement and innovation of science and technology is heavily sought after as an ideal, and the “progress of science” specifically promoted by the US Constitution, it seems altogether inappropriate that Verizon was able to sue Vonage for damages amounting to US$58 million for infringing 3 of its patents that […]
Upon discovery of the J. Craig Venter Institute’s (Institute) application for patent protection on a synthetic life form, called “Mycoplasma laboratorium”, the ETC Group promptly announced its intention to challenge the patent and urged the relevant authorities to reject the application as contrary to public morality and safety. The ETC Group does not contend that […]
In May of 2007 scientists at J. Craig Venter Institute filed a U.S. patent application on the world's first synthetic living organism (U.S. Patent application number 20070122826). The patent application claims include a set of essential genes required to provide the bare essentials of life as well as a "free-living organism that can grow and […]