Several justices seemed concerned that judges should have been appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. But there was no consensus about how to fix that flaw.
President Biden should choose the next director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office carefully.
By Priti Krishtel
Ms. Krishtel is a founder and an executive director of the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge, a nonprofit organization working to address structural inequities in how medicines are developed and distributed.
Feb. 9, 2021
Credit.Paul J Richards/Agence France-Press, via Getty Images
On his first day as president, Joe Biden signed an executive order proclaiming a “whole-of-government equity agenda.” Among other things, the order requires the head of each federal agency to identify and seek to redress structural inequities in its operations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/science/colombia-panela-patent-gonzalez.html
Workers in the final stages of an artisanal panela-making cycle in Versalles, a town in Colombia’s Valle del Cauca.
Colombians Ask: Who Would Dare Patent Panela?
Makers of Latin America’s favorite traditional sweetener say a sugar engineer wants exclusive control of their centuries-old product.
Workers in the final stages of an artisanal panela-making cycle in Versalles, a town in Colombia’s Valle del Cauca.Credit.
Jan. 26, 2021
VALLE DEL CAUCA, Colombia This past April, Jorge González Ulloa, a shareholder at one of Colombia’s largest sugar companies, was awarded U.S. Patent No. 10,632,167, which described a method for making an unrefined sugar containing high levels of policosanols, alcohols found in sugar cane wax that are purported to lower cholesterol.