Good news for inventors and technology start-ups
July 10th, 2008 by GilesBetter patent protection for innovators seems likely in the UK after a landmark decision of the House of Lords yesterday. The case concerned a medical patent -the Taxus stent- a simple but highly effective device to prop open the arteries of people with heart disease. The patent had been challenged on the grounds that the invention was too obvious to merit protection from copycats. But yesterday the law lords upheld the patent and dismissed the challenge.
This is good news for entrepreneurs who want to patent their ideas, especially in the early days before getting funding. As one legal expert, Mark Hodgson, was quoted as saying after the case, “This gets us back to the standard that your idea is your idea.”
The case is also good news for scientists at universities; an ever-increasing number of licences to exploit the value of inventions at universities are being issued - the latest figures, just published, show that 3,286 licences were issued in 2006-7, a more than 20 per cent increase over the previous year.
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July 19th, 20087:22 pm at
Great info - keep up the great work.