TRIP-ping Over Business Method Patents

Professor Chiappetta argues that the current effort to expand substantive international patent law harmonization to include business method patenting is ill-conceived and unsupportable. Such patents cannot be justified on the economic incentive grounds supporting the Western regimes. They are not part of the existing TRIPS agreement, and under present circumstances they should not be added. Any future agreement, bi-lateral or multi-lateral (including an extension of TRIPS), must be based on a better calibrated form of protection (less than patent) and should occur only after the persistent normative differences and the distributional consequences of international substantive harmonization have been addressed

Defining the Proper Scope of Internet Patents: If We Don\u27t Know Where We Want to go, We\u27re Unlikely to get There

Part I of this Article addresses the appropriateness of protecting Internet innovations under the current patent regime. It concludes that the doctrinal, historical and policy arguments require different outcomes regarding computing (patentable subject matter) and competitive arts (at best a difficult fit) innovation. Part II argues that the new electronic economy has given rise to a particular kind of competitive arts market failure (interference with first-to-move lead-time incentives) which must be addressed. It concludes, however, that tinkering with the existing patent or copyright regimes is not only complex, but poses significant risks, and should be avoided. Part III sketches the outlines of a proposed competitive arts regime, combining the qualification features of patent law with the more nuanced approach to rights and remedies of copyright law. Part IV concludes by outlining a number of interim measures necessary to mitigate the effects of protecting the competitive arts under traditional patent law while awaiting the arrival of the new regime

The Desirability of Agreeing to Disagree: The WTO, Trips, International IPR Exhaustion and a Few Other Things

This Article proposes a procedural and substantive approach specifically designed to achieve this result. Concerning process, interim national and regional decisionmaking and the multilateral debate must expressly broaden and clarify the values and interests at stake. Three basic operational principles advance this objective. First, comparisons based on IPR labels (patent, copyright, and the like) confuse rather than illuminate. Instead, focus must be on the actual underlying policy justifications and objectives. Second, the full range of implicated justifications (economic and otherwise), including those outside the decision-makers\u27 own norms, must be expressly identified and considered. Finally, any position taken or decision reached must transparently disclose the normative basis for the outcome, specifically indicating which justifications have been adopted, which have been rejected, and the reasons why

The (Practical) Meaning of Property

I argue that a functional approach to property - defining it as society’s decisions allocating varying kinds and degrees of legal control over resources rather than in terms of fixed sets of attributes or predefined goals - significantly clarifies public policy debate and related decision-making. That approach demonstrates we should reject characterizations of property as a yes-no proposition to which we react as well as the assumption that those who disagree with us are fools or worse. Those characterizations distract us from the central issue in property - our persistent normative disagreements regarding what constitutes its just application. Discussing property as a matter of choice will reveal we believe in a wide variety of “truths,” thus helping us talk with rather than past each other, but also clarifying that neither reason nor passion can ensure our view prevails. Finally, by focusing us on property’s practical effects, the functional approach reveals that the essential issue framing public debate in heterogeneous society is not how to ensure society’s adoption and implementation of our personal views but determining which we value more – our way or the continuation of society. If we chose the latter, then the pursuit of normative victory should give way to practical solutions which permit continued coexistence despite our normative disagreements. Although how we chose to answer the property question is up to us as individuals, the functional framework permits us to fully understand the alternatives and their consequences

The Desirability of Agreeing to Disagree: The WTO, Trips, International IPR Exhaustion and a Few Other Things

This Article proposes a procedural and substantive approach specifically designed to achieve this result. Concerning process, interim national and regional decisionmaking and the multilateral debate must expressly broaden and clarify the values and interests at stake. Three basic operational principles advance this objective. First, comparisons based on IPR labels (patent, copyright, and the like) confuse rather than illuminate. Instead, focus must be on the actual underlying policy justifications and objectives. Second, the full range of implicated justifications (economic and otherwise), including those outside the decision-makers\u27 own norms, must be expressly identified and considered. Finally, any position taken or decision reached must transparently disclose the normative basis for the outcome, specifically indicating which justifications have been adopted, which have been rejected, and the reasons why

Patentability of Computer Software Instruction as an Article of Manufacture : Software as Such as the Right Stuff, 17 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 89 (1998)

The last five years have witnessed a dramatic shift in the approach taken by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ( CAFC ) and, under the CAFC\u27s stern if somewhat incomplete guidance, the United States Patent and Trademark Office ( PTO ) to the seemingly intractable problem of determining whether software inventions qualify as patentable subject matter under the United States patent laws. Beginning with a series of CAFC decisions in 1994 and culminating with the PTO\u27s issuance of its Final Examination Guidelines for Computer-Related Inventions (the Guidelines ) in 1996, the paradigm shifted from a mathematical algorithm based analytic structure to an apparatus model driven by the presence or absence of related computer hardware in the claims. Has this new approach finally brought the 30-year quest for a solution to a close? Certainly, abandoning the mathematical algorithm approach is a proper, and indeed vital, first step toward untangling the confusion surrounding the patentability of computer software. And from the applicant\u27s and examiner\u27s perspectives the new regime establishes a more well defined and objective set of requirements which when followed results in much greater certainty in the examination process. Unfortunately however, this promising alternative leaves the Gordian knot uncut. This article examines the current treatment of the increasingly important article of manufacture variant of the new hardware model and explains logical gaps that still remain. The results of this inquiry are used as the basis for a proposed new software as implementation versus software as language approach to resolving the software patentability conundrum

Defining the Proper Scope of Internet Patents: If We Don\u27t Know Where We Want to go, We\u27re Unlikely to get There

Part I of this Article addresses the appropriateness of protecting Internet innovations under the current patent regime. It concludes that the doctrinal, historical and policy arguments require different outcomes regarding computing (patentable subject matter) and competitive arts (at best a difficult fit) innovation. Part II argues that the new electronic economy has given rise to a particular kind of competitive arts market failure (interference with first-to-move lead-time incentives) which must be addressed. It concludes, however, that tinkering with the existing patent or copyright regimes is not only complex, but poses significant risks, and should be avoided. Part III sketches the outlines of a proposed competitive arts regime, combining the qualification features of patent law with the more nuanced approach to rights and remedies of copyright law. Part IV concludes by outlining a number of interim measures necessary to mitigate the effects of protecting the competitive arts under traditional patent law while awaiting the arrival of the new regime

High prevalence of human papillomavirus infection in HIV-infected women living in French Antilles and French Guiana.

An association between HIV infection and cervical cancer, a major public health issue worldwide, has been reported. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and the distribution of HPV genotypes in HIV-infected women living in French Antilles and Guiana and to determine HIV-related characteristics associated with HPV infection. This cross-sectional study included 439 HIV-infected women who were followed between January 2011 and May 2014. Variables related to HIV infections were collected, and cervical samples were analysed to determine HPV genotypes. The median age of the population was 46 years. Estimated prevalence of HPV and high-risk (HR)-HPV infection were 50.1% IC95 [45.4-54.7] and 42% IC95 [37.3-46.6], respectively. HR-HPV 16, 52, 53 or intermediate risk-HPV-68 were found in 25% to 30% of the HPV-infected patients. Gynaecological screening revealed abnormal cervical smear in 24% and 42% of HR-HPV-negative and HPV-positive women, respectively (p = 0.003). Approximately 90% of women were on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Demographic characteristics associated with a higher prevalence of HPV infection included alcohol consumption. Regarding HIV-related characteristics, current therapy on ART, its duration, and undetectable plasma concentrations of RNA-HIV1 were associated with a lower risk of HPV infection. Infection rate with HR-HPV was higher than what is commonly reported in HIV-negative women worldwide and was more likely in women with incomplete HIV suppression. These results highlight the need for supporting adherence to ART, cervical cytology, HPV testing and HPV vaccination

Effective protein extraction protocol for proteomics studies of Jerusalem artichoke leaves

Protein extraction is a crucial step for proteomics studies. To establish an effective protein extraction protocol suitable for two-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE) analysis in Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.), three different protein extraction methods-trichloroacetic acid/acetone, Mg/NP-40, and phenol/ammonium acetate-were evaluated using Jerusalem artichoke leaves as source materials. Of the three methods, trichloroacetic acid/acetone yielded the best protein separation pattern and highest number of protein spots in 2DE analysis. Proteins highly abundant in leaves, such as Rubisco, are typically problematic during leaf 2DE analysis, however, and this disadvantage was evident using trichloroacetic acid/acetone. To reduce the influence of abundant proteins on the detection of low-abundance proteins, we optimized the trichloroacetic acid/acetone method by incorporating a PEG fractionation approach. After optimization, 363 additional (36.2%) protein spots were detected on the 2DE gel. Our results suggest that trichloroacetic acid/acetone method is a better protein extraction technique than Mg/NP-40 and phenol/ammonium acetate in Jerusalem artichoke leaf 2DE analysis, and that trichloroacetic acid/acetone method combined with PEG fractionation procedure is the most effective approach for leaf 2DE analysis of Jerusalem artichoke