The process to harvest human embryonic stem cells (hESC) may be old news in the scientific community; however, the issues raised by this area of science continue to be debated in law and politics. The moral and social arguments for and against embryonic stem cell research are well documented. Proponents argue that stem cells, derived […]
We live in an economy where manufacturers constantly strive to protect and increase their market share. Strategic intellectual property protection can be a great way to ensure product exclusivity, but can, and should, a single product enjoy several different forms of IP protection? One area where this overlap can occur is between industrial designs and […]
In a unanimous decision released last Thursday (Apotex Inc. v. Sanofi‑Synthelabo Canada Inc., 2008 SCC 61), the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that selection patents are, in principle, valid under the Canadian Patent Act. In making their pronouncement, the Supreme Court polished other legal requirements for patentability along the way. The case began 6 years […]
Trying to get from point A to B can be frustrating, particularly when stuck in gridlock. A situation Michael Heller likens to the American (and by default, the Canadian) patent system. Heller argues in his article titled “Where are the Cures” [1], that the current patent laws hinder researchers’ abilities to develop medical cures. The […]
The following is based on the Globe and Mail article “Major companies agree to make anti-pollution patents public,” by Martin Mittelstadedt. Since January 2008 patents developed with the goal of fighting pollution have been put into the public domain by a growing number of large companies, such as DuPont and Xerox. Dubbed the “eco-patent commons,” […]
In the Supreme Court decision in Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc,[1] the Court unanimously agreed to uphold the doctrine of patent exhaustion. The application of this doctrine is in the public’s best interest and therefore outweighs the detrimental impact of the doctrine on patent owners’ rights to control. LG Electronics (LG) had licensed […]
Recent public scorn concerning the faulty software patents approved by the United Stated Patent and Trade-Mark Office’s (USPTO) which led to the legal dispute between Research in Motion and NTP [1] may have been the cause for the recent shift in the USPTO’s stance towards a stricter and more onerous test for software patents. The […]
Over the last thirty years, investment in the research and development of pharmaceuticals has risen dramatically. However, the availability of new drugs has not matched the rise in investment. Instead, Michael Heller has found that the pharmaceutical industry is stuck in a “patent gridlock”[1], where patent owners are blocking inventors from using patented products and […]
Recent decisions by the US courts and Patent and Trademark Office have suggested a move towards the rejection of software patents.[1] This is likely an attempt to resolve the issuance of junk patents, the difficulty in developing software that doesn’t infringe existing patents, and the resulting patent-troll litigation.[2] Irrespective of the current problems, software should […]
The ideas that an inventor’s time and investments should be protected and new inventions encouraged through the granting of patents, underlie some of the justifications of our current patent system. Theorists such as Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham claim that patents are necessary to encourage invention at no social cost (1). Professor Heller of Columbia Law […]