The Claim Game

In 2011, the case Mayo v. Prometheus was argued in front of the Supreme Court. The case concerned patented diagnostic technology that assessed the appropriate dosage of drug treatments for various gastrointestinal diseases such as Crohn's disease. Prometheus laboratories sued Mayo Clinic, when Mayo attempted to use its own test, claiming patent infringement. A federal judge invalidated Prometheus

Diamond v. Chakrabarty is a landmark Supreme Court decision in regards to life science patents. In 1971, microbiologist Ananda Chakrabarty genetically engineered Pseudomonas bacteria to metabolize oil by using plasmids to transform bacteria with genes necessary for oil metabolism. Though before his work, oil metabolizing bacteria existed, Chakrabarty discovered a genetic crosslinking method that significantly improved upon the metabolism of oil

Patenting has shifted from purely and industry practice to one that has become adopted by universities. This comes at no surprise with the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 (which allows universities to claim ownership of inventions) as well as the emergence and growth of start-ups, incubators, and university technology transfer offices. However, ownership rights regarding university

One of the more recent, significant patent litigation cases within biotechnology is the Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics decided by the Supreme Court in 2013. In this case, the Association for Molecular Pathology challenged Myriad Genetics for its patents relating to BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and particular mutations in these genes that are strongly associated with

The recent lawsuit that VirnetX has brought against Apple in regards to Apple's infringement of VirnetX's patents through the use of Apple's modified VPN On Demand, FaceTime and iMessage technologies. However, this is not the first suit VirnetX has brought against Apple. In 2012, VirnetX won a $384M suit against Apple in regards to Apple's FaceTime and VPN

Patent trolls are arguably one of the greatest loopholes of the patent system. Otherwise referred to as Non Practicing Entities (NPEs), patent trolls have patents and enforce patent rights, but they do not innovate. Instead of acquiring patents to protect innovations, patent trolls acquire patent rights for the sake of having these rights and the prospect of profiting

Of all of the inventions on my revised top ten list, vaccines are my favorite. Vaccinations are an incredible medical development that not only serve as a preventative treatment to many deadly diseases, but they set precedent for what is now known as the field of preventative medicine. In the simplest of terms, vaccines are made of pieces

After looking at my fellow peers' blog post I have revised my list of top ten inventions of all time as the following: Written Language - Written language is a fundamental aspect of human society. Without language, it is difficult to communicate innovative ideas or even socially interact in the first place. Written language predates everything from newspapers,