title: Patent prosecution strategies for stem cell related applications.
abstract: Stem cell research and the intellectual property derived from it, because of its potential to completely transform health care, demand an especially high level of consideration from business and patent prosecution perspectives. As with other revolutionary technologies, ordinary risks are amplified (e.g., litigation), and ordinarily irrelevant considerations may become important (e.g., heightened level of both domestic and foreign legislative risk). In the first part of this article, general strategies for patent prosecutors such as several prosecution considerations and methods for accelerating patent prosecution process are presented. In the second part, patent prosecution challenges of stem cell-related patents and possible solutions are discussed. In the final part, ethical and public policy issues particular to stem cell-related and other biotechnological inventions are summarized.
authors.affiliation: Fernandez & Associates LLP, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. Kumarrajv@gmail.com
authors.forename: Rajeev
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Jenny J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fernandez
authors.forename: Nels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hansen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D033041:Embryo Research / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D023281:Genomics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D035846:Law Enforcement / Q000379:methods*; D010330:Patents as Topic / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011640:Public Policy; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D014481:United States