Category: Intellectual property
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Patent Awarded for Engineered Soybean to Control Parasite
A Kansas State University research team in Manhattan, Kansas received a patent for a genetically engineered soybean plant that aims to control a devastating parasite causing millions of dollars in crop damage each year. The engineered soybean plant was developed by four current or former K-State faculty: Harold Trick, Timothy Todd, Michael Herman, and Judith…
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U.S. PTO to Continue Gene Patents, BIO and AUTM File Brief
The Dow Jones news service reports today (2 November) that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (U.S. PTO) will continue to consider applications for gene-related patents, while the Justice Department has come out against such patents in a friend-of-court brief filed late on Friday in a case challenging them. David Kappos, undersecretary of commerce for…
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Agricultural Gene Technology Licensed to Dow Chemical
The John Innes Centre (JIC), a plant biology research institute in Norwich, U.K., announced today an exclusive licensing agreement with Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company, for technology that enhances the root systems of plants. The technology was developed at JIC by Dr. Liam Dolan and his colleagues. JIC says the team cloned…
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New Process Accelerates Nanoparticle Production
Engineering researchers at Oregon State University in Corvallis have discovered a new method to speed the production rate of nanoparticles by 500 times. The researchers say this advance — for which a patent has been applied — can help make products from nanotechnology more commercially practical. Nanoparticles are extraordinarily tiny groups of atoms and compounds…
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Report: U.S. to Oppose Gene Patenting
The New York Times reports today (30 October) that the U.S. Department on Justice late on Friday filed a friend-of-the-court brief stating the U.S. government’s opposition to making genes from humans and other natural sources eligible for patents. The Times says the case involves two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The brief…
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Portable Scanner Enables Quicker Breast Cancer Detection
An engineering professor at University of Manchester in the U.K. has invented a portable scanner based on radio frequency (microwave) technology, which can show in a second the presence of tumors -– both malignant and benign -– in the breast of a patient on a computer. The device can be used at a primary care…
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Start Up Licenses Nuclear Imaging Drug Compounds
Clarity Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd, a new company in Australia, has licensed technology developed by the University of Melbourne and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). The technology involves compounds developed by scientists from ANSTO and the University of Melbourne for use in positron emission tomography. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a test that…
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Oxford University Spins Off Tidal Turbine Company
A new enterprise, Kepler Energy Limited, has been formed in the U.K. to develop a tidal turbine, a result of research in Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science. Professors Guy Houlsby, Martin Oldfield, and Malcolm McCulloch developed the turbine (pictured right), which they say has the potential to harness tidal energy more efficiently and cheaply…
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Magnets Improve Understanding of Influenza Drugs
Using powerful magnets [sponsored link] to scan proteins’ atomic structures, scientists at Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee and Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah are close to understanding why some drugs to treat the influenza A virus have become less effective, and how new drugs can replace them. FSU has patented this magnet-screening process…
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Virginia Tech Licenses DNA Delivery Platform
Techulon Inc., a life sciences company in Blacksburg, Virginia, has signed an agreement with Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Inc. to license and market a new, traceable DNA delivery platform created to deliver genetic medicine to cells while carrying a tracker beacon so scientists can follow its progress. Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties is the university’s technology…