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As everyone waits for the Supreme Court of the United States' decision in Bilski – which may change the fundamental nature of what constitutes a patentable invention – a trial level judge of the US Federal Court has invalidated gene patents. I note that although the ruling was close to, it was not on the first of April, so it's no joke! Read more>

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Some of the largest e-commerce, social media and Internet-search giants including Google Inc., Facebook Inc., eBay Inc., Apple, Yahoo, Inc., AOL Inc., Netflix, Inc, and Google's YouTube have recently been cited in a patent infringement suit by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. Mr. Allen claims that these corporations and other Internet companies have used fundamental components of his patented technologies as an integral part of their e-commerce and internet-search functionality. Read more>

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Establishing a start-up based on technology from the University of North Carolina just got easier, compliments of the University of North Carolina Express Licensing Agreement. Cathy Innes, Director of the Office of Technology Development (OTD), says, "We believe we’ve come up with a set of terms that will work for all UNC startup licenses that is fair and reasonable to all stakeholders and can be put in place without negotiation. I don’t know of any other universities who have tried this approach." Read more>

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Early April saw the end of a seven year legal battle between IP Advocate founder Dr. Renee Kaswan and the University of Georgia Research Foundation (UGARF) over her blockbuster invention Restasis®. Kaswan invented the dry-eye drug while at UGA and soon recognized the value of her discovery, but her years of hard work were traded for pennies on the dollar by UGA in a secret buy-down deal with pharmaceutical giant Allergan. Kaswan says her negative experience of being sued by her own university is not uncommon and, if not checked, threatens the nation's ability to translate discoveries made at universities into inventions that will cure disease and improve life. Read more>