Accelerated Examination & Grant of Japanese Biotechnology Patents

The healthcare transformational capacity of biotechnology intellectual property makes it fundamental that such biotech patents are issued promptly in order to have clarity and certainty in the research community and the marketplace. In these economically challenging times, accelerated patent grants will make biotech patent owners more attractive to investors and licensors ensuring their survival. Japanese universities have aggressively patented and licensed their biotech research and utilized the accelerated patent system to procure the world's first ever induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) patent. This article examines the various accelerated examination procedures available at the Japan Patent Office and how biotechnology patent applicants can secure early patent protection in Japan, the world's second largest biopharmaceutical market.

The Growing Role of Genetic Professionals in Forensic DNA

Through the last decade there was an enormous revolution in the field of forensic genetic.The Author reviews some of the methodologies used in the definitions of DNA profiling tackling the principles of recombinant DNA techniques. The potentiality of polymorphic DNA fragments in vertebrates is focused as well as the revolution implied in forensic medicine. The resource to DNA-DNA hybridization combined to oligonucleotide probes is emphasized leading to the production of an individual bar code with the resource of genomic polymorphism which leads to a pattern known as genetic fingerprinting. Other techniques for individual identification and paternity testing are focused as well as the use of short tandem repeats (STR's). Mitochondrial DNA sequencing use to complement nuclear DNA typing may also be profitable in certain instances. Relevant problems within the context of the use of these techniques in forensic medicine and law suits are discussed. Final considerations viewing the resource to DNA technology within the scope of the last two decades are referred regarding the resource to DNA profiles not only in the US but in Europe in general and in Portugal in special having lead to compensation and uncover of justice errors.