Patent Reform

Matt Krupnick of the Contra Costa Times newspaper, in an article published today, looks at what proposed changes in the US patent system might mean to California's universities.

The proposed change would allow the first first inventor to file an application to get it, rather than the first inventor to prove invention, thus bringing the US in line with most of the world's other patent regimes.

According to Krupnick's article, Cal officials are against the change, saying it would favor well-heeled companies over public universities. The Cal university system produced 424 patents last year, the US university leader with a portfolio of some 6,600 active patents accounting for more than $93 million in 2003-2004, according to Krupnick. Note: while the US patent system may not be in alignment with others globally, a US patent is regarded as the key legal protection for intellectual property.

Coffee researchers – not caffeinated researchers – are looking at identifying biological markers with the goal of overcoming the robusta (Coffea canephora) variety's limitations in self-fertilization.

[Say, who cares about robusta? Dontcha know that it's the arabica variety that makes a tasty latte? Well, robusta is what is used for instant coffee.]

Arabica is self-compatible, as opposed to the robusta type, in which certain plants with the same genotype can not fertilize each other.

Robusta is important because it higher genetic diversity offers the potential for increasing resistance to disease and environmental changes.

This research on identifying biomarkers, according to Food and Drink Europe, is being conducted in cooperatiion with Uganda's agricultural research institute. Brazil, the leader in robusta production, is also a leader in investigating the genomics of coffee.

Having had a cup of cheap and delicious Chock Full of Nuts arabica coffee this morning, let me add that world coffee production last year was 110.5 million 60-kilo bags worth some $5 billion. Production this year is expected to shrink 5 percent, according to today's Financial Times, led by Brazil's production of over 30 million bags. Prices are already starting to move up.

Ambion of Austin, Texas, said today that it will provide Europe's MitoCheck consortium with a genome-wide siRNA library targeting every human gene. MitoCheck will use the library to investigate the regulation of cell division. MitoCheck is the largest project on cell cycle control within the European Union's 6th Framework Program.

Richard Casey, the chief scientific officer of RMC Biosciences of Fort Collins, Colo., pens a useful primer on proteins bioinformatics, published today in the online publication of the Business Intelligence Network.