But a Cornell Law School scholar suggests the court should take another approach, one that has been around for at least 250 years over another type of intellectual property that is strikingly similar to a gene sequence: Charts and maps.
He also said that a specific type of intellectual property cited in the suit, the so-called "shared libraries" used in the operation of Unix, was "one of seven or eight" different types of IP which SCO is investigating for IP violations by Linux developers.
The rankings reflect the number of U.S. utility-patents, which are the most common type of patents awarded for protecting intellectual property and technological innovation, received by companies around the world in 2010 based on data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
This new type of sharing is most popular with the fashion, design and art worlds and will create a new intellectual property stir among an industry that is already loathe to user-shared content.