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Copyright Reform, The Irish Way

Copyright Reform, The Irish Way

The current copyright statute in Ireland is the Copyright & Related Rights Act 2000. It was changed (a little) to bring Irish law into line with the EU Copyright Directive (2001), but not much has happened since. But following a promise in the coalition agreement after the 2011 general election, a Copyright Review Committee (chaired […]

Patenting Health: You Cannot Own the Laws of Nature

Patenting Health: You Cannot Own the Laws of Nature

On March 20, 2012, the United States Supreme Court decided Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., 132 S. Ct. 1289 (U.S. 2012). The case was unanimous and emphatically reaffirmed that United States patent law does not allow ownership of "laws of nature." The context was a pair of patents owned by Prometheus which claimed […]

Disclosure Front and Centre as Pfizer Prepares to Defend Viagra in Supreme Court of Canada

Disclosure Front and Centre as Pfizer Prepares to Defend Viagra in Supreme Court of Canada

This Wednesday, April 18, Pfizer will defend the patent protecting the little blue pill that has changed the lives of men and women around the world.  The pill is of course Viagra and the assailant is Teva, a generic pharmaceutical company.  Teva applied for a Notice of Compliance in order to market a generic version […]