Patent Clutter

Patent claims are supposed to clearly and succinctly describe the patented invention, and only the patented invention. This Article hypothesizes that a substantial amount of language in patent claims is in fact not about the core invention, which may contribute to well-documented problems with patent claims. I analyze the claims of 40,000 patents and applications, and document the proliferation of “clutter”—language in patent claims that is not about the invention. Although claims are supposed to be exclusively about the invention, clutter appears across industries and makes up approximately 25% of claim language. Patent clutter may contribute several major problems in patent law. Extensive clutter makes patent claims harder to search. Excessive language in patent claims may be the result of over-claiming—when patentees describe potential corollaries they do not possess—thereby making the patent so broad in scope as to be invalid. More generally, it strains the comprehensibility of patents and burdens the resources of patent examiners. After arguing that patent clutter may contribute to these various problems, this Article turns to reforms. Rejections based on prolix, lack of enablement, and lack of written description can be crafted to dispose of the worst offenders, and better algorithms and different litigation rules can allow the patent system to adapt (and even benefit from) the remaining uses of excess language. The Article additionally generates important theoretical insights. Claims are often thought of as entirely synonymous with the invention and all elements of the claim are thought to relate equally strongly to the invention. This Article suggests empirically that these assumptions do not hold in practice, and offers a framework for restructuring conceptions of the relationship between claims and the invention

On simultaneous approximation problems in normed spaces with application to differential equations

Imperial Users onl

Restoration of Mauri (Life-Force) to Okahu Bay: Investigation of the Cultural, Social, and Environmental Restoration

This thesis investigated the restoration of mauri (life-force) to Ōkahu Bay, Auckland New Zealand. Ōkahu Bay is part of the land and waters of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, a Māori hapū (sub-tribe). Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has been driving the restoration, restoring Ōkahu Bay based on their worldview, visions, and concerns. This vision and control of the restoration process allows them to bring in the hapū in sustainable engagement and have the long-term vision and commitment necessary for self-determination. However, while there has been progress with projects and improved decision-making authority, hapū members are still not seeing their whānau (family) swimming in and caring for Ōkahu as much as they would like. Interviewees wanted to see an explicit focus on encouraging hapū members to use the bay, such as more educational programs and water-based activities, and continued efforts to improve water quality. Shellfish populations have also not recovered after a decade of monitoring due to structural aspects such as existing stormwater pipes. Changing these requires Auckland City Council to make stronger commitments to supporting Ngāti Whātua’s restoration. Overall, this investigation showed that in this restoration, a clean environment is essential to build community and a community is essential to build a clean environment. This community-driven restoration, while not perfect, has great potential to truly reconnect people with their environments, decolonize the land and the people, and create thriving ecosystems and people that benefit themselves, their communities, and the wider Auckland community

What is the Future of Organoids?

The term organoid refers to a miniature version of any organ of the body. An organoid is artificially produced in vitro from stem cells or tissue that possess the ability to recapitulate and form the three-dimensional structure of the organ they were once a part of. Scientists have learned to create a culture for the organoid that mimics its original micro cellular environment, allowing the 3-D structure to self-organize and develop into miniature organs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the many advancements of organoid technology, and how this progress has benefited the medical field. Organoid technology allows for the observation of human organ development and disease, while also providing scientists with the opportunity to test drug interactions with these “mini-organs” (Barbuzano, 2017). Organoids also shed light on the future of artificial transplantation, providing replacements for dysfunctional organs and tissue. The advancements of organoid technology can potentially revolutionize the field of medicine, contributing to the progress of modern biology

Finding common ground : patient-centered care and self-management support of multimorbidity in primary health care

Background: Patient-centered care is associated with improved health outcomes and increased care satisfaction and is a target for health care internationally. An important component of patient-centered care is patient-centered communication, which aims to involve patients in their care. Nevertheless, recent national and international surveys have found shortcomings in involving patients in their care. This is especially true for older patients with chronic diseases. As populations age, an increasing number of patients have multimorbidity (i.e., two or more chronic diseases). However, health care is still organized around single diseases. Selfmanagement can be burdensome for these patients because of functional impairment, polypharmacy, and contradictory information from multiple health care professionals. There is evidence that self-management support improves outcomes for patients with single chronic diseases, but such evidence is lacking for patients with multimorbidity. The aim of this licentiate thesis was to explore perceptions of professional-patient interactions and perspectives on how to improve self-management support for patients with multimorbidity in primary health care. Methods: Exploratory designs were used to investigate health care professionals’, patients’, and family caregivers’ perspectives on patient-provider interactions and self-management support. Study I was a cross-sectional questionnaire study about patient-centeredness in primary health care consultations in northern Stockholm. The study included 596 participants: 298 pairs of patients and health care professionals (physicians, registered nurses, and physiotherapists). Study II was a mixed-method qualitative study about self-management support for patients with multimorbidity that included 42 participants. It used focus groups and in-depth interviews with health care professionals and patients in central Sweden. It also included in-depth interviews with registered nurses, patients, and family caregivers from a rural region in southern Sweden where telemedicine was used to support patients. The results were analyzed with content analysis. Results: The main finding of the two studies was that the perspectives of both health care professionals and patients need to be acknowledged to find common ground in primary health care consultations. Study I showed that most patients had expressed their own ideas in consultations, but only a minority had expressed their concerns. Although patients were satisfied with the consultations overall, the health care professionals tended to believe that patients were less satisfied than the patients reported they were. In Study II, the main theme that emerged was “Standing on common ground enables individualized support.” This theme was supported by four categories. Conclusions: The main conclusion of this thesis was that it is important to find common ground between the patients’ and health care professionals’ agendas and goals in consultations. Finding common ground through patient-centered communication could reduce misperceptions of patients’ experiences (Study I) and enable individualized support for self-management (Study II). A trustful relationship between the health care professional and patient could facilitate patient-centered communication

Restoration of Mauri (Life-Force) to Ōkahu Bay: Investigation of a Community Driven Restoration Process

This thesis investigated the restoration of mauri (life-force) to Ōkahu Bay, Auckland New Zealand. Ōkahu Bay is part of the land and waters of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, a Māori hapū (sub-tribe). Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has been driving the restoration, restoring Ōkahu Bay based on their worldview, visions, and concerns. This vision and control of the restoration process allows them to bring in the hapū in sustainable engagement and have the long-term vision and commitment necessary for self-determination. However, while there has been progress with projects and improved decision-making authority, hapū members are still not seeing their whānau (family) swimming in and caring for Ōkahu as much as they would like. Interviewees wanted to see an explicit focus on encouraging hapū members to use the bay, such as more educational programs and water-based activities, and continued efforts to improve water quality. Shellfish populations have also not recovered after a decade of monitoring due to structural aspects such as existing stormwater pipes. Changing these requires Auckland City Council to make stronger commitments to supporting Ngāti Whātua’s restoration. Overall, this investigation showed that in this restoration, a clean environment is essential to build community and a community is essential to build a clean environment. This community-driven restoration, while not perfect, has great potential to truly reconnect people with their environments, decolonize the land and the people, and create thriving ecosystems and people that benefit themselves, their communities, and the wider Auckland community

Home is Only a Money Transfer Away: Remittances and the Salvadoran Diaspora

Emily Freilich wrote this essay in her ID1 seminar, Diasporas and U.S. Foreign Policy with Professor Mietek Boduszynski. It was one of two prize-winning papers from the Fall 2014 seminars

The Paradox of Legal Equivalents and Scientific Equivalence: Reconciling Patent Law\u27s Doctrine of Equivalents with the FDA\u27s Bioequivalence Requirement

Contrary to popular perception, generic drugs often enter the market before the patents covering their brand name counterparts have expired by making slight changes to the drug to avoid the brand name patent. These generics face a paradox: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that the generic not show a significant difference from the reference product, while patent law requires that the generic have substantial differences as compared to the reference product. The generic must be bioequivalent, but not legally equivalent, to the brand name drug. This paradox occurs frequently in the courts but has never been discussed in the literature. This Article analyzes every case to date involving this equivalence paradox to create a normative theory explaining and predicting courts\u27 treatment of these cases. It then explains the implications for patent law. Namely, it demonstrates how courts use these cases as an opportunity to tailor the scope of the patent based on its ability to provide ex post incentives for commercialization and development. Finally, this Article discusses the broader implications of the paradox on FDA law and concludes that these cases demonstrate that, while courts are increasingly skeptical of evergreening, the paradox impedes progress towards cheaper, safer medicine