Debating biomedical 'privatization'

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) soon will issue interim guidelines for determining whether a biotechnology patent application discloses sufficient information to meet the legal requirement that "an individual who has skill in the technology would have been able to make and use the invention as intended without undue experimentation," according to a PTO official.

Writing last week in Science, John Doll, PTO's director of biotechnology examination, said the guidelines will be published for public comment within three months...