As our Australian readers will know, Four Corners on public broadcaster ABC is this country's longest-running and most respected investigative journalism program.From the Four Corners page relatiing to tonight's episode:
Right now across the globe there is a major legal and scientific battle raging over one simple question: should we allow individuals and corporations to patent genes? Some biotech companies say yes, claiming patents reward medical research and promote the investigation of life saving treatments. Others see it very differently, describing patenting as a biotech land-grab that's less about patients and more about greed
...
Who is right? Can the very basis of life itself be patented and sold? Is it possible that a unique gene that makes us what we are could be patented by someone we don't know and then franchised out to a major corporation?
Scary stuff! Along with emotional content relating to the financial effects of gene patents on particular families and (or course) children, we will be interested to see whether the broadcast report itself is more balanced.
If nothing else, this story will ensure that gene patents remain in the public consciousness, and it may increase the prospects that the new parliament will re-refer this issue to the Senate Community Affairs Committee which (as we reported this morning) put its gene patent enquiry on-hold due to the recent election.
Four Courners airs tonight at 8.30pm on ABC1. It will be replayed on ABC1 on Tuesday 7 September at 11.35pm, and on Friday and Saturday at 10.00pm and 2.30pm on ABC News 24. It will also be available on the web via the ABC iView service, and from the Four Corners "video-on-demand" website. (Note: the web services may not be available to overseas viewers.)
Before You Go…
Thank you for reading this article to the end – I hope you enjoyed it, and found it useful. Almost every article I post here takes a few hours of my time to research and write, and I have never felt the need to ask for anything in return.
But now – for the first, and perhaps only, time – I am asking for a favour. If you are a patent attorney, examiner, or other professional who is experienced in reading and interpreting patent claims, I could really use your help with my PhD research. My project involves applying artificial intelligence to analyse patent claim scope systematically, with the goal of better understanding how different legal and regulatory choices influence the boundaries of patent protection. But I need data to train my models, and that is where you can potentially assist me. If every qualified person who reads this request could spare just a couple of hours over the next few weeks, I could gather all the data I need.
The task itself is straightforward and web-based – I am asking participants to compare pairs of patent claims and evaluate their relative scope, using an online application that I have designed and implemented over the past few months. No special knowledge is required beyond the ability to read and understand patent claims in technical fields with which you are familiar. You might even find it to be fun!
There is more information on the project website, at claimscopeproject.net. In particular, you can read:
- a detailed description of the study, its goals and benefits; and
- instructions for the use of the online claim comparison application.
Thank you for considering this request!
Mark Summerfield
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