Philip123’s Comments

• Apr 1st, 2010 @ 3:45am

  (untitled comment) (as Paul)

  on More On The Gene Patent Ruling: What Happens Next
  There's a fascinating take on this at the Skeptic's Health Journal, sort of provides some of the background to the debate, if interested you can read on it here, http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/
• Mar 29th, 2010 @ 4:30pm

  (untitled comment)

  on Judge: Gene Patents Are Invalid
  This is excellent news! James Watson co-discoverer of DNA was opposed to such patents and when NIH overuled him he left, or was forced out, in 1992. As the judge correctly notes these are products of nature not intellectual products. Now we are in the absurd position of being able to cheaply and rapidly sequence a persons entire genome. Is every single nucleotide polymorphism found in the individual by the testing company open to being patented. It is to my mind akin to buying a microscope and then claiming a patent on whatever components of life I find there. What about, again as the judge noted, the problem with stifling scientific advance by not being able to openly study the gene in question. I would go one further and say that no DNA sequence whether created artificially or found through sequencing may be patented. Quite often these sequences end up in self replicating or potentially self replicating organisms. There is an interesting story http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/2010/03/astonishing-court-case-of-becky-mcclain.html of a microbiologist who is claiming she was inadvertently infected by a genetically engineered virus. The company however, is refusing to release the sequence of the virus in question. Well what if that virus or a future one turned out to be contagious. Can you even place a patent on a computer virus, how much more foolish to claim there is patent protection is the virus might someday be able to kill you. At the very least, requests by health practitioners or public health officials should over rule patent claims, whether a sequenced part of a genome or one made from scratch. Glad to see this ruling.
  
  http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/
• Nov 19th, 2009 @ 4:07pm

  (untitled comment)

  on Would Top Sites Really Opt-Out Of Google Based On A Microsoft Bribe?
  Looks like Microsoft is worried about Google's foray into Operating Systems. Re Overcast, personally I thought MS would have done much better if they had named it Bong. http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/