The uninvited guest: patents on Wall Street

For at least the past twenty-five years, financial services industries have been creating innovative products and services without the help of patents. The 1998 State Street Bank case changed all this, making patents freely available in these industries. Will patents help or hurt financial services innovation in the long run? This article sheds some light on this issue. ; Before the advent of patents, several “appropriability” mechanisms protected financial services innovation: “first mover” advantages, complementary or “cospecific” assets, and trade secrecy. Evidence suggests that, in the immediate post-patent era, financial firms’ first order of business was to protect these traditional appropriability practices. This attitude explains the early push to secure a “prior use rights” defense to protect established firms against patent claims by upstart outsiders. From a historical perspective, this reaction to the “patent threat” tracks that of other industries: in particular, nineteenth-century railroads and the software industry of the 1980s. ; In the end, the author argues, patents are not likely to cause any real and lasting problems. Although patents may increase the costs of interchanging innovative ideas, they may bring some unintended benefits as well—by fostering spin-offs and facilitating entry by start-ups, for example. Like random shocks in the natural world, the new patent regime provides a shakeup that could bring some good but unpredictable consequences.Patents ; Financial services industry

Binary central stars of planetary nebulae with long orbits: the radial velocity orbit of BD+33.2642 (PN G052.7+50.7) and the orbital motion of HD112313 (PN LoTr5)

We study the impact of binary interaction processes on the evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars using long-term monitoring of their radial velocity. Here we report on our results on the central stars of two planetary nebulae (PNe): the well-studied spectrophotometric standard BD+33.2642 (central star of PNG 052.7+50.7) and HD112313 (central star of PN LoTr5), the optical light of which is dominated by a rapidly rotating G star. The high-resolution spectra were cross-correlated with carefully selected masks of spectral lines. The individual masks were optimised for the spectral signatures of the dominant contributor of the optical light. We report on the first detection of orbital motion in these two objects. For BD+33.2642 we sampled 1.5 cycles of the 1105 +/- 24 day orbital period. For HD 112313 a full period is not yet covered, despite our 1807 days of monitoring. The radial-velocity amplitude shows that it is unlikely that the orbital plane is co-planar with the one defined by the nebular waist of the bipolar nebula. To our knowledge these are the first detections of orbits in PNe that are in a range from several weeks to a few years. The orbital properties and chemical composition of BD+33.2642 are similar to what is found in post-AGB binaries with circumbinary discs. The latter are probably progenitors of these PNe. For LoTr5 the Ba-rich central star and the long orbital period are similar to the Ba star giants, which hence serve as natural progeny. In contrast to the central star in LoTr5, normal Ba stars are slow rotators. The orbits of these systems have a low probability of occurrence according to recent population synthesis calculations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics, letter

Nanoparticle tethered antioxidant response element as a biosensor for oxygen induced toxicity in retinal endothelial cells

Purpose: A novel system, based on biosensor DNA tethered to a nanoparticle, was developed for the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity. Methods: The construction of a five-layered nanoparticle was visualized with gel electrophoresis. Transcriptionally active PCR products (TAP) containing the biosensor sequence, were bioconjugated to the surface of magnetic nanoparticles yielding biosensor tethered magnetic nanoparticles (MNP). The biosensor was based on an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) reporter gene driven by an enhanced antioxidant response element ( ARE). Image analysis and flow cytometry were used to characterize MNP delivery and biosensor activity. Results: The MNP penetrated dividing and migrating cells more often than quiescent endothelial cells in a wound-healing in vitro assay. Prussian blue staining demonstrated that more cells have nanoparticle cores than are transfected. When compared to naked TAP alone, MNP transfected more cells in a dose dependent manner. Both the biosensor alone and MNP induce gene expression in the presence of hyperoxia, greater than 1.5 fold over normoxic controls. These data also show that the MNP had a signal to noise ratio of 0.5 greater than the plasmid form of the biosensor as demonstrated by flow cytometry. Conclusions: This approach has the potential to allow the endothelial cells of the retinal vasculature to prevent or treat themselves after hyperoxic insult, rather than systemic treatment to protect or treat only the retina

Patente in der europäischen Finanzindustrie: terra incognita?

Die unklare Formulierung des Artikels 52 des Europäischen Patentübereinkommens hat zu einer Unsicherheit bezüglich der Patentierbarkeit von Erfindungen mit finanzwirtschaftlichem Hintergrund am Europäischen Patentamt (EPA) geführt. Der vorliegende Artikel gibt einen Überblick über die geltende Rechtslage in Europa und stellt sie den relevanten Regelungen in den USA gegenüber. In einer empirischen Erhebung werden 1761 Patentanmeldungen am EPA identifiziert, denen eine Erfindung mit finanzwirtschaftlichem Hintergrund zu Grunde liegt. Die Analyse dieser Patente zeigt, dass nur lediglich circa 20 Prozent aller bisher abgeschlossenen Anmeldeverfahren zu einer Patentgewährung geführt haben. Verglichen mit einer durchschnittlichen langfristigen Gewährungsrate von rund 68 Prozent scheint das EPA restriktiv bei der Gewährung von "Finanzpatenten" zu sein. Dieses Ergebnis ist für die Bemühungen um einen neuen regulativen Rahmen zur Vermeidung zukünftiger Finanzmarktkrisen relevant. Eine umfassende Patentierung könnte einer schnellen Verbreitung von aus regulatorischen Gründen gewünschten Methoden im Wege stehen.The imprecise wording of article 52 of the European Patent Convention lead to uncertainty with regard to the patentability of inventions related to financial methods and processes at the European Patent Office (EPO). This article summarizes the relevant legislation in Europe and contrasts it with the legislation in the US. In the empirical part of the paper, 1,761 EPO patent applications based on inventions related to financial methods and processes are identified. The analysis of those patent applications demonstrates that only 20 Prozent of the completed application procedures led to a final patent grant. Compared to an overall grant rate of about 68 Prozent at the EPO this finding highlights that the EPO pursues a restrictive approach towards the award of "financial patents". This finding bears relevance for the future design of a regulatory framework for the financial industry: Widespread patenting could hinder fast diffusion of financial innovation and hamper regulators' efforts to implement them

The MetaInvert soil invertebrate genome resource provides insights into below-ground biodiversity and evolution

Soil invertebrates are among the least understood metazoans on Earth. Thus far, the lack of taxonomically broad and dense genomic resources has made it hard to thoroughly investigate their evolution and ecology. With MetaInvert we provide draft genome assemblies for 232 soil invertebrate species, representing 14 common groups and 94 families. We show that this data substantially extends the taxonomic scope of DNA- or RNA-based taxonomic identification. Moreover, we confirm that theories of genome evolution cannot be generalised across evolutionarily distinct invertebrate groups. The soil invertebrate genomes presented here will support the management of soil biodiversity through molecular monitoring of community composition and function, and the discovery of evolutionary adaptations to the challenges of soil conditions.The MetaInvert database provides draft genome assemblies for 232 soil invertebrate species, representing 14 common groups and 94 families, that will aid in the discovery and management of soil biodiversity

After the Trolls: Patent Litigation as Ex Post Market-Making

Patent policy has been dominated lately by efforts to reduce rent-seeking patent troll litigation. As recent reforms begin to take effect, it is timely to consider the more constructive aspects of patent litigation. This Article contends that the lag between product development and patent litigation, which pushes the problem of patent valuation into the ex post (after product development) period, serves just such a positive function. Re-search, development, and product roll-out can all take place first. Then, at a later stage, patent litigation sorts out the relative merits and contributions of the various inventors and competitors who contributed to the new product or technology. In the time between early commercialization and litigation, a good deal of helpful information comes to light about the product and its market. This makes valuation more tractable, especially as compared with the early (ex ante) development period, when uncertainty is high. Litigation also serves as a structured process that promotes party settlement, adding another dimension to its potentially positive role

Patent Infringement, Private Law, and Liability Standards

Private law governs interactions among private parties. A large body of private law theory holds that private law is aimed at corrective justice: doing justice as between the two parties to a private interaction (the private law dyad). This in contrast to public law, the law of state-citizen interactions, whose purpose is usually said to be the pursuit of society-wide fairness, often understood as distributive justice. Torts, contracts and property are the three classic areas of private law in common law jurisdictions. A sizeable literature now concerns itself with classic private law topics as they apply to intellectual property (IP). Articles, and now a fine monograph,¹ argue that patent law’s strict liability standard is out of touch with modern tort theory, which emphasizes that private law liability must be grounded in fault. In this Article I enter that discussion with a defense of the current liability regime in patent law, which is a distinct form of “strict liability.” But before wading into those waters, it is first necessary to understand which aspects of patent law belong in the domain of private law in the first place. It is not as simple as saying patents are property and therefore private law applies. This is so because patents, when brought to bear against another private party in an infringement suit, are subject to intensive and rigorous validity review. The business of patent validity— quintessentially in place to protect society, and thus within the public law domain— precedes the true private law part of patent enforcement. The “shallow vesting” of the initial patent grant must be solidified and brought to fruition with the deep, but strictly in personam, vesting of a patent that survives validity review. Between the parties to the private law dyad, plaintiff and defendant, all cloud on the patent owner’s title is removed and the patent enforcement action enters its “private law moment.” The patent at this point forms a solid entitlement capable of serving as a baseline for applying corrective justice as between the parties. After delineating the private law moment in patent law, I turn to the question of strict liability. After explaining some details about the adequacy of patent notice—in response to a well-known critique of “notice failure” in patent law—I defend strict liability on private law grounds, using two (or two and a half) variants of private law theory, Strict Corrective Justice (“SCJ”) and “Relational Justice,” with points drawn from a third approach to private law called Civil Recourse Theory. The first defense emphasizes parallels between patent infringement and cases on “per se negligence.” It highlights the expansiveness of “fault” in cases where weak warnings are given to highly trained experts held to a very high duty of care (e.g., technology-intensive product sellers who adopt possibly patented technologies). The second defense of strict liability applies the more expansive Relational Justice theory of private law. I explain how the strong norm against misappropriation evident in communities of technological innovators, coupled with an understanding of how difficult it can be to prove direct copying of new technical ideas, points to strict liability in this setting. In keeping with the more holistic emphasis of Relational Justice, I also argue that a negligence rule in patent law would harm the vitality of technical communities. It would cut down on the volume of community-wide technical communication and interaction, as a strategy to avoid infringement liability

136— Predation on Microbivalves by Juvenile Naticid Gastropods on San Salvador Island, The Bahamas

Predator-prey interactions, where snails eat clams, evolutionarily has been a key interaction within marine molluscan communities. There is evidence of molluscan extinctions in the fossil record that are marked by changes in predation ratios. In this study, we will investigate predation of microbivalves by juvenile naticid gastropods in a shallow marine setting on San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. We propose to test predation density within different environments (facies) of a lagoonal setting. Significantly different ratios between these facies in one time period can indicate that predator-prey interactions can change over time from one environment to another. It is more efficient to test this with juvenile microbivalves, due to a greater abundance and less bias in preservation in microfauna than macrofauna. Our null hypothesis is that there will be no significant variation in predation densities between the different facies. When comparing our data to other time periods, we could determine the presence of a molluscan extinction event