Knowledge Ecology International

In a major patent ruling today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a unanimous decision in Mayo v. Prometheus Laboratories. The case, heard twice before the Federal Circuit (once before the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bilski and once after), has been closely followed because of its impacts on personalized medicine and potential implications for the Myriad Genetics case on the BRCA genes. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and held that Prometheus’ patents-at-issue were not eligible for patent protection.

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On March 20, 2012, Senator Wyden (D-OR) filed two amendments to H.R. 3606, a bill known in its short form as “Jumpstart Our Business Startups” or JOBS Act, related to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

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Sally Susman of Pfizer leads the most lethal lobbying effort on drug patents and prices. She’s also a big Obama campaign fundraiser.

For several years, Pfizer has been considered a hardliner among big pharma companies on international negotiations over intellectual property rights and drug pricing. This has not changed despite the company having had three CEOs in the past five years.

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The following information is taken directly from the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement web page which reports that on 13 March 2012, Ukraine requested consultations with Australia under the WTO’s dispute settlement system with respect to Australia’s Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill 2011 which the WTO website noted imposes “trademark restrictions and other plain packaging requirements on tobacco products“.

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The eleventh round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) took place in Melbourne, Australia from 1-9 March 2012. Stakeholders were given the opportunity to present at the stakeholder platform on 4 March, attend a reception on 6 March and the stakeholder briefing on 7 March.

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On March 12, 2012, Steve Ricchetti began his new job as a high level policy adviser to Vice President Biden. Steve Ricchetti is a former registered lobbyist, who de-listed as a registered lobbyist but remained the president of a lobbying firm until taking his new job in the White House.

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