Law

The Chicken or the Egg

Wired reports that the University of Missouri may own the rights to clones, not just to a particular cloning process. The USPTO, and the associated judiciary, has gone horribly awry in interpreting patents, in general, to apply both to processes and to product. Not only do we get overly broad patents out of it, but we get panicky articles like Wired's.

"The U of M patent is for the process and not for the product," said R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and medical ethics at the University of Wisconsin. "It is akin to getting a patent on a new kind of manufacturing technique without getting a patent on any of the products that might be made by the technique. Thus, the U of M will have no property interest in any mammalian organisms made by the patented process."

That's one opinion. Given their past behaviour, the contrary may be the case, but I don't think the USPTO is that obtuse.

2:31:42 PM # Google It!
categories: Law