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Ontario Ignores Gene Patent
Anonymous Coward writes "Well, for once my government the Ontario Tories have done something right. You see, there's this cancer test that involves a gene sequence patented in Utah. Thankfully, my goverment decided to
ignore the patent and help out those who need it. Ah the joys of living in such a liberated country." Different provinces have made different decisions about this particular patent.
Ah the joys of living in such a liberated country
You'll be less pleased when GWB names Canada as a new member of the Axis of Evil in his upcoming State of the Union address because of your "intellectual terrorism".
This is an important distinction.
If they patented the gene, it is already existing naturally, there is no reasonable infringement.
If they patented the procedure to detect the gene, they shoul get the benefit of their research (assuming it is a valid patent).
If they patented the gene as a method to predict cancer, then the arguement is quite murky. Finding cancer by looking for it is obvious. Finding cancer by looking for other unrelated factors is probaly a valid patent.
If this gene sequence is related to cancer (causative or a result of) then it is related to the having of cancer (like cough due to cold).
Maybe they just have a good patent lawyer.
Genetic patents are patently ridiculous because they almost always involve discovering prior art and patenting it or the process used to observe it. Generally, genetic patents are not novel or new in any way. They are akin to patenting basic algorithms being applied to basic operations - for instance, building a b-tree to store and retrieve strings in one patent and integers in another.
Congrats to Ontario for seeing genetic patents for the farce they are. I could care less about the profits of a few would-be monopolists over the lives of even one or two people. Save the people, have compassion on the sick, and most importantly, don't value money over the lives of the poor. You could be poor one day.
$G
-- $G