Intellectual Property

The currently riotous political climate in the USA tends to overwhelm our awareness about political controversies in other countries. There is only so much news the American public can take in, which limits the space and airtime devoted to political issues in other countries. However, everyone has heard about Brexit – Britain’s exit from the European Union. Actually, it is

Human beings are amazing! Collectively, we are clever and excel at many things. We have harnessed fire, invented the wheel, eradicated noxious diseases, created the internet (and smart phones so we are never without it), and put a man on the moon! We are good at lots of stuff, but there is one thing that none of us is very

Copyright law existed way before the internet. In fact, an international copyright treaty called the Berne Convention has governed copyright law amongst nations since 1886 (except the United States, which did not ratify this treaty until 1988). The underlying precept of copyright law is that making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work is infringement. Before the internet this rule

Is a natural thing eligible for patent protection? Can you go about patenting nature – a plant, a gene or a bacterium? The patent statute only lists four things that are patentable: “Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful [1] process, [2] machine, [3] manufacture, or [4] composition of matter … may obtain a patent therefor ….” 35 U.S.C.