Having received over 100 written submissions, and conducted two days of public hearings, the Senate granted the Committee an extension of time for reporting, until 25 August 2011 (see Update on the Australian Senate Gene Patent Inquiry).
Now, in the most recent development, on 23 August 2011 the Senate granted the Committee a further extension of time, until 21 September 2011.
Rumour has it (and we would love to hear from anyone with any additional ‘inside information’) that the reason for this latest delay is, quite simply, because the Committee is hopelessly divided over the Bill, and is unable to reach a sufficient consensus to make any recommendation.
Anybody who has read the Committee Hansard record of the public hearings would be unsurprised by this rumour. While a number of Senators appeared to be genuinely interested in what all witnesses – on all sides of the debate – had to say, there were others (notably Senators Heffernan, Xenophon and Siewert) who are well-known for their opposition to gene patents, and who appeared openly sympathetic to witnesses whose evidence supported that position while at times (particularly in Senator Heffernan’s case) almost hostile towards other witnesses.
This suggests that at least three of the nine members of the committee are most likely immoveable in their desire to recommend that the Patent Amendment (Human Genes and Biological Materials) Bill 2010 be passed by the Senate.
If nine senators cannot reach agreement regarding a recommendation, the prospects of an entire chamber (let alone both houses) passing the amendment bill must surely be slim, no matter what the Committee’s final report may say.
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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