Patents on Antarctic Biota, Playboy sues in its sleep...

Don't ask why I'm up this late... some of you know. Well, here's some of the things you notice at 3am.

First, from Scientific American:

Patents on Ice

Antarctica as a last frontier for bioprospectors--and their intellectual property

One or two blockbuster drugs derived from Antarctic bacteria could spur a veritable stampede. A United Nations study released in February cautioned that the push to exploit extremophiles requires new rules to protect the continent's fragile ecosystem. Regulation of these activities presents special challenges. The Antarctic Treaty System pledges to protect the continent's environment but does not address bioprospecting directly, which could encourage more of these endeavors. Moreover, existing international policies on bioprospecting are of limited use. For instance, although the Convention on Biological Diversity has established a framework for allowing access to biological resources, it assumes that individual states in fact have sovereignty over these resources, a presumption that does not hold for Antarctica.

and... (warning: New York Times article... if you will want this later, print to PDF.)

Rosie Issue Fades Away, Copyright Issue Rises

Last month, Playboy Enterprises pressed criminal charges against Prisma Presse, Gruner & Jahr's French unit and the owner of Voici, a French women's weekly that printed small photographs of Playboy pages that featured the actresses Shannen Doherty and Daryl Hannah. Mr. Ganz, left, was in court in France to face charges that the magazine had engaged in "counterfeiting by publication or reproduction."

Publishing companies get into legal squabbles all the time, but there is a European twist in this instance. Under French law, breaking copyright can be a criminal offense and rights holders are sometimes allowed to choose between the civil system and the penal system to seek redress.

Posted by joebeone at Abril 26, 2004 03:02 AM | TrackBack