Supreme Court Legitimizing Medical Patents? 251
RobinEggs writes "A case before the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday addressed the legality of medical patents. From the article: 'The case focuses on a patent that covers the concept of adjusting the dosage of a drug, thiopurine, based on the concentration of a particular chemical (called a metabolite) in the patient's blood. The patent does not cover the drug itself—that patent expired years ago—nor does it cover any specific machine or procedure for measuring the metabolite level. Rather, it covers the idea that particular levels of the chemical "indicate a need" to raise or lower the drug dosage. The patent holder, Prometheus Labs, offers a thiopurine testing product. It sued the Mayo Clinic when the latter announced it would offer its own, competing thiopurine test. But Prometheus claims much more than its specific testing process. It claims a physician administering thiopurine to a patient can infringe its patent merely by being aware of the scientific correlation disclosed in the patent—even if the doctor doesn't act on the patent's recommendations.'"
Shenanigans!! All your thought are belong to us! (Score:5, Interesting)
Looks like it's time for that revolution.
Damn, and here I was hoping to never have to befriend an extremist militia.
Moving to Canada or Australia sounds good, but, like they say, "the grass is always greener".
Requires a License to Prescribe ? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The stupid! It hurts! (Score:5, Interesting)
Brazil had this idea:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4059147.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Re:Jumping the gun? (Score:4, Interesting)
the Supreme Court is not a trial court, they only hear appeals after a trial has taken place and appeals to lower level courts have been exhausted. they don't hear any evidence.
the parties submit their briefs, other parties submit their briefs depending on who's side they are on. the record of the case goes to the justices. each party gets something like 15 minutes to summarize their case during which they are constantly interrupted by the justices with their questions.
almost a year later after looking at the records the justices give a decision and most times the case is sent to a lower court for more litigation
don't believe idiotic tech magazine stories written by people who don't know how it works
Summary judgment (Score:5, Interesting)
By the way, do not forget your rights if you become a jury - NULLIFICATION.
Which is one reason why a lot of litigants are so quick to get matters of law disposed of in summary judgment, so that the question of fact has no chance to even go before a jury.
Re:Shenanigans!! All your thought are belong to us (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The stupid! It hurts! (Score:3, Interesting)
"But Prometheus claims much more than its specific testing process. It claims a physician administering thiopurine to a patient can infringe its patent merely by being aware of the scientific correlation disclosed in the patent—even if the doctor doesn't act on the patent's recommendations."
If anyone is spreading FUD it's the patent holder.
Re:Shenanigans!! All your thought are belong to us (Score:5, Interesting)
or 3. The lawyers, judges, and Congress will realize that the entire government will grind to a halt if that strategy is allowed, so they will reject the strategy, completely failing to realize that this is also a problem in other areas.
This is exactly what happened in banking... they had a patent troll attack, and the bansters' government pets just made that entire sector immune [1] from the problem.
So what you get is further distancing of sectors like banking and law from the rest of us... and increases likelyhood of a (more violent) revolution.
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021303731.html?nav=emailpage [washingtonpost.com]