AIDS Drug Patent Revoked In US
eldavojohn writes "Doctors Without Borders is reporting that four patents for tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, a key AIDS/HIV drug, have been revoked on grounds of prior art. This is potentially good news for India & Brazil who need this drug to be cheap; if the US action leads to the patent being rejected in these countries, competition could drastically lower prices. But the ruling bad news for Gilead Sciences. The company has vowed to appeal. We discussed this drug before."
I am a medicine geek and will offer a simple translation for computer geeks who may be less familiar with this situation. Put very simply:
Big Pharma = Micro$oft, SCO, MPAA/RIAA
MSF, Developing nations like Brazil and India who produce medicines for the developing world in violation of the patent = Linux, EFF, University of Oregon et al.