In testimony to the USPTO on March 9, executives from Myriad Genetics and Prometheus Laboratories defended the current legal underpinning of diagnostics tests. They noted that patent protection was essential to recouping the millions of dollars they and other companies have spent to develop new technologies.
Richard Marsh, Myriad evp, general counsel, and secretary, noted that Myriad invested $500 million over 17 years before breaking even on research, development, and commercialization of its tests. “Myriad wouldn’t have been able to make this capital investment without the promise of exclusive patent rights. The risk and reward inherent in the ability to obtain exclusive license rights in the patent system is the driving force behind investment in genetic tests and hence their development and commercialization to the general public.”


The full trailer for Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” is upon us.
(For the record, the trailer may reveal more about the film than you may want to know. Take this into consideration.)
Clocking in at just over two minutes and 30 seconds, the trailer reveals the film’s basic plot: The same pictogram is discovered at the sites of civilizations spanning different centuries, leading a crew to travel to a planet to search for the origins of humanity. Noomi Rapace’s character believes the pictogram is “not a map,” but “an invitation.”
Turns out it’s not the kind of invitation you want to get.
Cut to images of Michael Fassbender touching some goopy material, an alien ship that is headed for Earth, the crew screaming/looking terrified and general chaos.
“Big things have small beginnings,” Fassbender’s character, who is an android, says ominously as the trailer ends.