21 Italian families with at least two members who had had febrile convulsions (FC) were HLA-typed for class I antigens. A total of 49 subjects and 43 close relatives (parents or sibs) were examined. No single antigen or haplotype was statistically more frequent among pooled FC subjects. The study, however, is not conclusive regarding a relationship between FC and HLA region because of the possible genetic heterogeneity of proneness to FC. In a significant proportion of cases two FC affected sibs had unaffected parents: besides the models of inheritance so far proposed for this pathology, the involvement of two complementary dominant factors was also considered. The report includes uncommon cases: a family where one FC affected parent transmitted the same HLA haplotype to all three affected sibs; two more families, with both parents and progeny affected by FC. The HLA typing of all members of these unusual families, although not furnishing relevant information at present, may be of value to other investigators.
On 25th November, 2014, the coalition “No Patents on Seeds” filed an opposition against the European patent EP 2 134 870 B1, held by the U.S. Company Monsanto Technology. The patent, granted on 26th February, 2014, by the European Patent Office, covers “utility of SNP [single nucleotide polimorfism] markers associated with major soybean plant maturity and growth habit genomic regions” and includes “methods for screening plants and seeds from the genus Glycine withmarkers associated with genomic regions that are related to the plant maturity and growth habit of Glycine plants”.“No Patents on Seeds” claims that the patent should be completely revoked, as it falls within the exclusion of essentially biological processes for the production of plants from patentability under art. 53(b) of the European Patent Convention (EPC2000) and is not a patentable invention according to art. 52(2)(a) EPC. This case note gives an overview of the opposition and discusses its implications.
In June 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Association for Molecular Pathology et al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., et al., holding that “a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated, but cDNA is patent eligible because it is not naturally occurring”.This case note gives an overview of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, which is focused on the product of nature doctrine, and discusses its implications for the implementation of the criterion of isolation to DNA sequences and the United States Patent and Trademark Office's long-standing practice of granting patents on isolated DNA sequences (author's headnote).
In May 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Vernon Hugh Bowman v. Monsanto Company et al. in favor of Monsanto Company, affirming the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and holding that patent exhaustion does not permit a farmer to reproduce patented seeds through planting and harvesting without the patent holder's permission.This case note gives a brief overview of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, in which the meaning and limits of the doctrine of patent exhaustion have been examined, and discusses its implications for farmers and seed companies.
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