The number of international patent filings dropped last year for the first time since 1978 as companies hit by the global economic downturn sought fewer new protections on their intellectual property, the U.N. said Monday. Most patents filed in 2009 were for computer technology, followed by pharmaceuticals and ...

A judge on Tuesday weighed whether a lawsuit should proceed that seeks to invalidate a company's patents on two genes linked to an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The case challenging whether anyone can hold patents on human genes has broad implications for the biotechnology industry and genetics-based medical research. Last March, the American Civil Liberties Union ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer should be declared invalid because they stifle the free flow of information and hamper research, lawyers told a New York judge on Tuesday. A lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups last May posed a broad challenge to gene patenting and its ...

Boston Scientific said Monday it will pay medical device rival Johnson and Johnson $1.73 billion to settle several seven-year-old patent disputes over drug-coated stents. Boston Scientific will pay Johnson & Johnson's Cordis unit $1 billion Monday and $725 million next January. The settlement resolves three patent disputes dating back to 2003, and avoids jury trials that were scheduled ...