The Case for Patenting New Plants
Speaker:
Ed Sease
16 Feb 2012
8:00 PM
Great Hall, Memorial Union
Edmund J. Sease is a trial lawyer with more than thirty years of experience litigating intellectual property cases. He has represented clients before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and argued before the United States Supreme Court in a precedent-setting case on the patent eligibility of genetically modified plants. He holds a degree in chemistry and graduated from Drake University Law School, where today he is an adjunct professor. He has taught copyright, trademark and patent law as well as courses in intellectual property litigation. Part of the Who Owns Life? Intellectual Property in Biotechnology and the Life Sciences Symposium
[b]Who Owns Life? Intellectual Property in Biotechnology and the Life Sciences
Thursday, February 16, 2012[/b]
South Ballroom, Memorial Union
The protection of intellectual property through patents is one of the most important mechanisms for encouraging innovation. But with new scientific advances, especially in biotechnology, what is reasonable, useful, and ethical to patent? This symposium will present issues of intellectual property protection specific to the plant and life sciences.
[b]12:00-2:00 pm
Research Liberty, Traditional Knowledge and Piracy - Robert Streiffer & Shontavia Johnson[/b]
[b]Ethical Analysis of Objibway Objections to Wild Rice Research[/b]
Robert Streiffer is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a joint appointment in the Department of Medical History and Bioethics and the Philosophy Department. His work focuses on ethical and policy issues arising from modern biotechnology, including xenotransplantation and the application of biotechnology to animals in agriculture. He earned a PhD in ethics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
[b]Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property[/b]
Shontavia Johnson is an assistant professor of law at Drake University Law School with expertise in intellectual property and human rights. She holds a BS in Biosystems Engineering, with emphasis in applied biotechnology, and a JD from the University of Arkansas School of Law.
[i]Refreshments and discussion[/i]
[b]3:00-5:00
Gene Patents in Law, Ethics and Policy - Margo Bagley & David Resnik[/b]
[b]Changing Tides or A Drop in the Bucket? Challenges to Plant Patenting in the U.S. and Abroad[/b]
Margo Bagley is a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, specializing in patent law and intellectual property. She has a degree in chemical engineering and has worked in products research and development for the Coca-Cola Company and Procter & Gamble, where she was co-inventor on a U.S. patent for improved peanut butter. She received her JD from Emory University and is licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
[b]The Ethics of Patenting Human DNA[/b]
David Resnik is author of [i]Owning the Genome: A Moral Analysis of DNA Patenting[/i]. He was a professor of Medial Humanities at the East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine and later on the faculty at the University of Wyoming, where he directed the Center for the Advancement of Ethics. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of North Carolina and a JD from Concord University School of Law.