Search results for ""author jorge l. contreras""

In this riveting, behind-the-scenes courtroom drama, a brilliant legal team battles corporate greed and government overreach for our fundamental right to control our genes. When attorney Chris Hansen learned that the U.S. government was issuing patents for human genes to biotech companies, his first thought was, How can a corporation own what makes us who we are? Then he discovered that women were being charged exorbitant fees to test for hereditary breast and ovarian cancers, tests they desperately needed—all because Myriad Genetics had patented the famous BRCA genes. So he sued them. Jorge L. Contreras, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on human genetics law, has devoted years to investigating the groundbreaking civil rights case known as AMP v. Myriad. In The Genome Defense Contreras gives us the view from inside as Hansen and his team of ACLU lawyers, along with a committed group of activists, scientists, and physicians, take their one-in-a-million case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Contreras interviewed more than a hundred key players involved in all aspects of the case—from judges and policy makers to ethicists and genetic counselors, as well as cancer survivors and those whose lives would be impacted by the decision—expertly weaving together their stories into a fascinating narrative of this pivotal moment in history. The Genome Defense is a powerful and compelling story about how society must balance scientific discovery with corporate profits and the rights of all people.

Read more less

Technical standards like USB, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth are ubiquitous in the modern networked economy. They allow products made and sold by different vendors to interoperate with little to no consumer effort and enable new market entrants to innovate on top of established technology platforms. This groundbreaking volume, edited by Jorge L. Contreras, assesses and analyzes legal aspects of technical standards and standardization beyond those covered in its companion volume (patents, competition, and antitrust). Bringing together leading international experts, advocates, and policymakers, it focuses on key areas of technical standardization law including administrative, trade, copyright, trademark, and certification law. This comprehensive, detailed examination sheds new light on the standards that shape the global technology marketplace and will serve as an indispensable tool for scholars, practitioners, judges, and policymakers everywhere.

Read more less

Patent holders are increasingly making voluntary, public commitments to limit the enforcement and other exploitation of their patents. The best-known form of patent pledge is the so-called FRAND commitment, in which a patent holder commits to license patents to manufacturers of standardized products on terms that are ''fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory.'' Patent pledges have also been appearing in fields well beyond technical standard-setting, including open source software, green technology and the biosciences. This book explores the motivations, legal characteristics and policy goals of these increasingly popular private ordering tools. Jorge Contreras and Meredith Jacob bring together work by more than a dozen international experts who examine the phenomenon of patent pledges from a variety of perspectives and analytical frameworks. The book assesses patent pledges as mechanisms for facilitating platform promotion, open innovation, economic development and environmental sustainability. Legal practitioners who are involved in intellectual property licensing, litigation and business transactions will find this book a key resource, as will in-house lawyers and managers at firms engaged in technology development and standardization. It will also be a key reference for scholars in law, economics, business and political science.Contributors include: C. Asay, B. Awad, M. Bohannon, M. Callahan, J. Contreras, D. Greenbaum, M. Jacob, Y. Kim, M. Maggiolino, C. Maracke, A. Metzger, L. Montagnani, J. Schultz, S. Scott, T. Sebastian, N. Shanahan, R. Sichel, R. Sikorski, T. Simcoe, D. Valz, L. Vertinsky, E. Wang, E. Winston, S.-S. Yi

Read more less

This book covers a broad range of legal topics relating to the fields of bioinformatics and medical informatics, which relate to the intersection of biomedical information and computer programming within the contexts of scientific research, product development and healthcare delivery. A number of usually distinct bodies of legal doctrine come together in this area, sometimes overlapping, sometimes colliding in unexpected ways. Key issues discussed in the book include: An overview of the current landscape of bioinformatics and medical informatics A focus on the legal issues arising from the development and acquisition of informatics tools for use in a laboratory or healthcare setting Developments in patent and innovation law that are important for informatics applications A discussion of institutions and collaborative arrangements in which informatics applications are developed and used today Data protection and privacy issues applicable to informatics applications in the U.S. and Europe. While no single work can cover the entire set of legal issues arising from large, dynamic and complex fields such as bioinformatics and medical informatics, this book strives to offer the reader insight into some of the major legal trends and considerations applicable to these fields today.

Read more less