One of Apple's patents, for instance, appears to grant it ownership over any application based on a user's location.
Among them, we only consider utility patents, which are those that pertain to new and useful inventions, omitting design and plant patents for instance [28].
Contemporary participation in the 'information age' is clearly different from prior experience, insofar as information production is a much more common activity across all domains, and such information has been given value, often monetary value, in new and experimental forms - one need only consider the conflicted story of gene patents for instance.
It has been granted a patent, for instance, on a particular homomorphic encryption method.
A patent agent can file a patent application, for instance, but may not be able to draft a contract for a patent if such action is considered practicing law in their local area of jurisdiction.
Filing for a new one, which is possible, is not of much help: patients could simply buy versions of the drug which are already available from other makers.One way of solving this problem would be to change the patent system, for instance by extending the length of patent protection, but this could hamper innovation in other ways.
Yet, the heads of pharmaceutical company patent departments, for instance, did have the opportunity to talk with relevant persons from the legal system.
Companies that have patented proteins, for instance, have invoked the doctrine to prevent competitors from marketing molecules with slightly different amino acid sequences that perform the same biological function.
A pro-consumer settlement may be possible only with payment from the branded to the generic manufacturer, coupled with entry that actually occurs before patent expiration -- for instance, when the branded drug company has a strong patent case, but the generic is overly optimistic.
The commercialization of IP, indicated by patent-related activities, is controversial in genetics due to the possible negative effects of patenting human material, for instance, on the availability of diagnostics and treatments.
For instance, patents are not self-enforcing; patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation is frequent, sometimes leading to costly litigation.
