Free Republic

The pitch was intriguing: U.S. health officials wanted to fast-track trials for an Ebola vaccine and sounded the call for volunteers. Charles Sullivan called up the hotline on a whim, figuring the National Institutes of Health already had filled its queue and wouldn’t need him. But he was accepted for three rounds of shots of a deactivated virus, a year’s worth of blood analysis and a $900 check for his trouble. The clinical trial went well, and the vaccine seemed promising. A decade later, the country is still waiting for a vaccine amid a worldwide Ebola outbreak, and Mr. Sullivan...

The Obama Administration has chosen to back Ebola vaccines made using cell lines cultivated from aborted babies, despite the fact that the government itself acknowledged that moral alternatives could also be used, according to a pro-life organization that specializes in advocating for morally produced vaccines.  Children of God for Life says it has discovered that several Ebola vaccines in development for use worldwide are being made using the aborted fetal cell lines.The proof of the use of the controversial cell lines in the manufacture of the vaccines is found in the patents. According to the patents, Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) and NIAID...

Three years ago, a security guard working for seed company Pioneer Hi-Bred came across something unusual on a road in Iowa: Just off the pavement, a man was on his knees, digging in a field. Challenged by the guard, Mo Hailong claimed to be an employee of the University of Iowa who was traveling to a nearby conference. He jumped back in his car and sped away. U.S. authorities would later accuse Hailong, and five other Chinese nationals, of stealing corn seeds and attempting to smuggle them back to China. A seventh defendant, Mo Yun, was arrested and charged Wednesday...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office invalidated several patents belonging to the Washington Redskins. This is not the first attempt by aggrieved parties to have the trademarks revoked. A recent poll showed more than 70 percent of Redskins fans opposed changing the team name. More so, a majority of Americans have not found the team name to be offensive. Even more telling, there are numerous sports teams on Indian reservations around the United States that use the name Redskins. When the team name and logo were created, Native Americans participated. But the patent office has ruled that, at...

Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Tim Graham. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office found its way to the front page by declaring the word "Redskins" was offensive and therefore unworthy of trademark protection under a 1946 law that proscribes trademarks for "immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter." MSNBC anchor Joy-Ann Reid reported this news with an obscenity warning before airing a clip of Sen. Harry Reid: "And I just warn people, he does use the name of the team. So, I'm just going to warn you guys about that in advance." She's not alone. Liberal sports writers refuse to...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the Washington Redskins trademark registration, calling the football team’s name “disparaging to Native Americans.” The landmark case, which appeared before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, was filed on behalf of five Native Americans. It was the second time such a case was filed. “This victory was a long time coming and reflects the hard work of many attorneys at our firm,” said lead attorney Jesse Witten, of Drinker Biddle & Reath.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out a lower court decision in a patent fight over heart rate monitors, a decision that will affect other patent infringement fights.

Almost 5,000 years ago, Chinese physicians recommended a tea made from cannabis leaves to treat a wide variety of conditions including gout and malaria. Today, as the global market for marijuana experiences an unprecedented boom after being widely legalized, it is China that again appears to have set its eyes on dominating trade in the drug.

Gunmakers such as Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. and Sturm Ruger & Co. are boosting firearms sales by building weapons that are more accurate and easier to use, with gun-related U.S. patents at a 35-year high. Manufacturers are competing for sales with improvements such as magazines that increase a bullet’s accuracy or are lower in cost. Of 6,077 patents issued since 1977 in the firearms class, 19% were in the past four years, with a record 370 issued last year, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Our nation’s founders incorporated the concept of individual property rights — including intellectual property rights — into the Constitution because they knew that these rights spur innovation and help promote economic growth. However, patent assertion entities (PAEs), otherwise known as “patent trolls,” inhibit the innovation and economic growth that patents typically foster. Even more alarming, with the creation of government-sponsored patent trolls (GSPTs) — which are financially backed by a national government — patent trolls have gone global. Patent trolls, which can either be companies or government-sponsored organizations, are entities that buy large patent portfolios — not to use the...

SAN JOSE — A jury on Thursday said that Samsung Electronics would have to pay Apple $290 million more in damages for violating patents, putting an end to one chapter in the long-running patent struggle between the two tech companies. The six-woman, two-man jury calculated the damages based on 13 products that infringed Apple’s patents. They determined that two smartphones incurred the heftiest damages: Samsung’s Infuse 4G, at about $100 million, and the Droid Charge, at $60 million. While the price tag will not significantly affect either company’s pocketbooks — they are two of the most profitable companies in the...

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that human genes isolated from the body can’t be patented, a victory for doctors and patients who argued that such patents interfere with scientific research and the practice of medicine. The court was handing down one of its most significant rulings in the age of molecular medicine, deciding who may own the fundamental building blocks of life. The case involved Myriad Genetics Inc., which holds patents related to two genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, that can indicate whether a woman has a heightened risk of developing breast cancer or ovarian cancer. Justice Clarence...

... Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and who was a primary sponsor of the 2011 law, said he backs the president’s effort to suppress patent trolls. “The United States patent system is vital for our economic growth, job creation, and technological advance,” Mr. Leahy said in a statement. “Unfortunately, misuse of low-quality patents through patent trolling has tarnished the system’s image.” ...

WASHINGTON — One company threatened to sue 8,000 coffee shops, hotels and retailers for patent infringement because they had set up Wi-Fi networks for their customers. Another claimed that hundreds of small businesses were violating its patents by attaching a document scanner to an office computer system. One claimed rights to royalties from anyone producing a podcast. Now the Obama administration is cracking down on what many call patent trolls, shell companies that exist merely for the purpose of asserting that they should be paid because they hold patents that are being infringed by some software or electronic process.

A federal court in Seattle issued a ruling Thursday that could help settle the question of just how much a company can expect to reap from standards-essential patents. In the highly anticipated court ruling, U.S. District Judge James Robart determined that Google’s Motorola Mobility unit is entitled to about $1.8 million a year from Microsoft for its use of certain patents. Motorola had been seeking in excess of $4 billion in the case, which centered around patents related to the the H.264 video standard and the 802.11 wireless standard. In making its determination, the court noted that there are some...

The U.S health care system could save over $1 billion dollars a year if they replace current antiretroviral drugs for HIV infection with generic versions of the medications, a risky move that could seriously affect the efficacy of HIV treatment. The implications of such a change was explored in a study published in the January 15 edition of Annals of Internal Medicine.

If there's been one topic that has entirely dominated the post-election landscape, it's the fiscal cliff. Will taxes be raised? Which programs will be cut? Who will blink first in negotiations? For all the talk of the fiscal cliff, however, I believe the US is facing a much more serious problem, one that has simply not been talked about at all: corruption. But this isn't the overt, "bartering of government favors in return for private kickbacks" corruption. Instead, this type of corruption has actually been legalized. And it is strangling both US competitiveness, and the ability for US firms to...

A U.S. jury on Friday said Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has infringed some of Apple Inc's patents, and that all of those patents are valid. The verdict in the high-stakes trial between the two tech giants was still being read in a federal courtroom in San Jose, California, and not all of the key legal findings had been announced.

A U.S. jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages from Samsung Electronics, finding that the Korean company infringed on some of Apple's valid patents. As for the countersuit, the jury found Apple did not violate any of Samsung's wireless standards or feature patents. Apple shares hit an all-time high in after-hours trading. Click here for the latest after-hours quote. The jury found some Samsung phones infringed Apple design patents but said the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 did not infringe Apple design. The patents the jury found Samsung violated included those for the "bounce back," scroll, zoom and navigate features. The...

Veteran Judge Posner says "animals" like Apple are just exploiting the weapons an ineffectual gov't has created "It's a constant struggle for survival.  As in any jungle, the animals will use all the means at their disposal, all their teeth and claws that are permitted by the ecosystem," states Judge Richard A. Posner in a recent interview with Reuters.   As a sitting judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals who occasionally moonlights as a judge in Chicago's U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Judge Posner has watched the devolution of America's intellectual property system over the past several decades. I. Google v. Apple -- A...