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JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2000 92(2):96-97; doi:10.1093/jnci/92.2.96
© 2000 by Oxford University Press
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Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 92, No. 2, 96-97, January 19, 2000
© 2000 Oxford University Press

NEWS

Pricing Human Genes: The Patent Rush Pushes On

Tom Reynolds

On December 10, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office celebrated its 6 millionth patent, granted to Palm Computing Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., for the technology to instantly synchronize data in a handheld organizer with a personal computer.

About a year earlier, the PTO assigned patent 5,853,988 to the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston and the Whitehead Institute, part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. Although there was no fanfare at the PTO that day, the pair of patents neatly encapsulates the two revolutions — information technology and biotechnology — that are reshaping the world.

Patent 5,853,988 assigned the rights to the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor gene. Based on research done at the two institutions in the 1980s and early 1990s, the patent gives MEEI and Whitehead exclusive rights for 20 years to commercially develop the RB gene to detect mutations, and potentially . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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