Even if that never happens, Sanofi's cancer drugs eventually are going to lose patent protection--although that could take almost a decade.
His biggest concern is that "a very high percentage of our revenue is going to go off-patent within the next product cycle, " meaning in seven years, the time it takes to develop a new drug.
These images surface just as Apple is going to court to try to take down Samsung on patent infringement charges.
Nothing has even made it out of committee yet, so the actual passage of a patent reform bill still seems quite far off, but there is definite talk going on in Washington as to what patent reform would look like, and there seems to be enough common ground for some good to come of it.
Now, the patent is going to expire very soon.
WHITEHOUSE: "White House to Main Street" Town Hall: Elyria, OH
So if you're going to drop trade barriers, maybe you can extend my patent rights to the foreign countries.
WHITEHOUSE: "White House to Main Street" Town Hall: Elyria, OH
As in most cases of patent law it is not going to be that simple.
That's how long it's going to take the Eli Lilly chief executive to rebuild earnings flattened by the premature loss of patent protection on the famed antidepressant.
Professor Venter said it is the only way drug companies are going to use genetic information to make medicines - to invest in the research they need the patent protection to ensure they recoup their money.
With waves of blockbuster drugs going off patent, and problems over getting their successors to market, tough questions about prices are the last thing drug companies want.
With glyphosate going off patent in September 2000, generic manufacturers were anxious to strike a deal.
That is only going to get worse as Zocor, Merck's cholesterol treatment, loses patent protection this summer.
One would let an alleged infringer of a patent challenge its validity at the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), rather than going to court.
Lipitor is also expected to lose market share at an accelerating pace going forward, which many call the pending patent-cliff.
That is especially true for technology companies, but based on the above I would argue that savvy investors need to also look for companies that have strong patent portfolios, particularly with regard to those technologies that are on the cusp of going mainstream.
Based on that illustration up there, we're going to hazard a guess it could be used in Apple's MacBook and iMac lines, though the patent application doesn't explicitly exclude mobile devices, either. (In fact, the filing acknowledges a camera like this could be used in, ahem, a television.) What we'd really like to know is how easy it would be for the user to active the privacy mode.
ENGADGET: Apple patent application reveals a camera with built-in privacy filter
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