Patent Law

Patent devaluation at BIO in San Diego?

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

And the Ardmore-based Noble Foundation has invested its scientific research heavily in developing a type of switchgrass that can be grown easily, cultivated and converted into ethanol. The foundation recently planted a 1,000-acre test plot in the Panhandle and has another 114 acres planted near Maysville.

RedOrbit mentioned Steve Burrill:

In a "state-of-the-industry" report to about 1,500 participants at the BIO show before the exhibition hall opened Wednesday morning [June 18], industry analyst Steve Burrill described the key role that agriculture and biofuels play in the biotechnology sector.

"Ag bio is with us and is being very, very successful," Burrill said. "In the last year you couldn't have read a newspaper anywhere in the world without being aware that biofuels are transforming the nature of the fossil fuel world."

How industry has been shaken

The biofuels industry has undergone a "little bit of a shakeout" because the cost of production and fuel needed to produce it has driven investment away from corn-based ethanol, Burrill said.

"We see not only large amounts of ethanol, but cellulosic (switchgrass) biofuels becoming the real future," Burrill said. "We are very concerned today about exploiting the food crops for fuel, and there is a backlash going on because of that. We need to be engaged in dialogue that we are not part of the problem in the food crisis but part of the solution."

There was no mention of alternatives, for example, like those of Coskata.
[See
GM aligns with Coskata on cellulosic ethanol; good plan or Exxon's Reliance re-visited?]

Contemplate also the work of Lonnie Ingram.

Californiastemcellreport also mentioned Burrill at BIO on the pharma area:

Say goodbye to those blockbuster, high-margin drugs. Hello to even more generics. Consumers will drive the market. Big Pharma, already suffering the anguish of expiring patents, will suffer more. Can you spell patent devaluation, he basically asked his audience. The biopharmaceutical industry will have to be re-invented. He said:

"Our friends in Pharma are in deep yogurt."

Could this explain CIRM's fumbling with its own IP policy, and the hiring of a not-registered patent attorney to give it IP advice?

Full post as published by IPBiz on June 21, 2008 (boomark / email).