Revoking a Patent query

[narain]

Dear Biological Scientists

I submitted a PhD thesis report in Cambridge University dating July 2008 https://1c4016a7-a-7221ba2e-s-sites....attredirects=0 . A patent on similar ideas were filed as priority date one month later by another group in Europe on August 2008 http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/WO2010018196 ,

Do you think that the PhD thesis submission of one month earlier can be considered as an argument to revoke the other patent ? You can also send me private message to my email. My email can be found from my website www.tinyurl.com/abinarain .

Regards,

Narain

[Bukowski]

Wrong forum, seek legal advice, not advice from biologists and bioinformaticians.

[dpryan]

My understanding is that that would constitute "prior art". Of course, if your thesis wasn't immediately public then that might change things (I don't know how it works in Cambridge, but for me there was a lag between submitting the thesis/receiving the degree and things appearing online). You'd really need to talk to a patent or IP lawyer, of which I rather doubt there are any on this site.

Having said that, this sort of situation isn't that uncommon. There are often groups working on the same thing independently.

[rskr]

Dear Biological Scientists

I submitted a PhD thesis report in Cambridge University dating July 2008 https://1c4016a7-a-7221ba2e-s-sites....attredirects=0 . A patent on similar ideas were filed as priority date one month later by another group in Europe on August 2008 http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/WO2010018196 ,

Do you think that the PhD thesis submission of one month earlier can be considered as an argument to revoke the other patent ? You can also send me private message to my email. My email can be found from my website www.tinyurl.com/abinarain .

Regards,

Narain

In my **opinion**. It seems their patent is a specific species and set of mutations, whereas your thesis(which I skimmed) is a generalization across many species, not including the one they used. I suspect if you had a different set of mutations in a different species, you would be able to argue about the generality of their claims if they made any, based on your previous work, however you may not be able to void that specific patent. In other words general theories, don't preclude specific purpose inventions.

On another note, it is kind of weird that you point out your freshly minted novel thesis was so close to this other research.

[narain]

@rskr

I have clearly stated that it is identified the panB gene is feedback controlled, and so we can do site-directed-mutagenesis (SDM) at panB gene to remove this deregulation. This method can be applied to any panB gene behaving this feed-back control. I also proposed some more techniques.

@dpryan

Well, I had a fight with my supervisor, so it is likely that my supervisor or someone from my committee sold the ideas to them! Though this is difficult to prove, what is legal to prove is that my thesis submission date is earlier than their patent priority filing date. Also my thesis submission date is July 2008, whereas the patent filing date is one year later in August 2009 !

[rhinoceros]

If I were you, I'd think more carefully what I post, and under what names. Employers do google people's names, you know (and yours is trivial to connect to the posts you've made here). You're basically sabotaging your future job prospects, I mean, according to your posts you've had disputes in basically every place you ever worked at. How do you think prospective employers will feel about this? Also what Bukowski said..

[narain]

Well, there is too much that I have lost in those 3 institutions than what I will be gaining from my next job switch. What do you mean by every place ? I worked in more than 10 companies till now in my short span of career, and I have listed only 3 here where I think I made major contributions which were not recognized appropriately. I also worked at Los Alamos labs, IBM Austin, BCGSC Vancouver, Newcastle University, Granta Design Cambridge, ICGEB Delhi, JNU Delhi, and some more places where I did not have any problems.

With regard to what @Bukowski said, though I take his advise seriously, but going for legal advice will cost me money! and a lot! Over here, I am sure I am not the first person to get into such problems, so others can help me from what they learnt from experience.

[rskr]

@rskr

I have clearly stated that it is identified the panB gene is feedback controlled, and so we can do site-directed-mutagenesis (SDM) at panB gene to remove this deregulation. This method can be applied to any panB gene behaving this feed-back control. I also proposed some more techniques.
!

Thinking about it again, it seems that if you specified the gene sequence, that that would be sufficient even though it was in a different species. I think that is how Monsanto is able to keep glycosophate resistance protected.