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Yes indeed. They dodged the bullet.
Also from the WSJ
Challengers, including a group of medical researchers represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, contend that like other products of nature, genes cannot be patented, although methods of isolating them or ways to use them could be.
How far would that go in satisfying Myriad?
Market can't seem to make its mind on this.
7:55AM Discovery Labs receives FDA recommendations and request for clarification regarding recently-submitted SURFAXIN (lucinactant) updated product specifications (DSCO) 2.39 : Co announced that the FDA has requested clarification and provided recommendations regarding the recently-updated product specifications for SURFAXIN. Discovery Labs plans to provide a response to the FDA within two months. FDA procedure provides up to four months for FDA review of the information provided. If its plan is successful and the FDA agrees with the response, Discovery Labs expects to proceed with the commercial introduction of SURFAXIN in the fourth quarter of 2013. The recently-received FDA correspondence includes a request for specific information intended to clarify certain aspects of the updated product specifications and the revalidated analytical chemistry method, including:
Recommendations regarding how the product specifications should be documented and notated
A specific recommendation for the upper limit of a single product specification that Discovery Labs can readily accept
A request for two existing and readily available documents related to the improved analytical chemistry method
Request for supporting data using the recently improved and revalidated analytical chemistry method that is being generated from recent SURFAXIN batches.
Not directly applicable to MNTA's present situation, but intresting,
WSJ
New Venture Enters Patent Fray
San Francisco Startup Plans to Recruit Companies to Deter Legal Threats Against Its Members
By DON CLARK
Firms that buy and enforce patents make life hard for technology companies. A new San Francisco startup hopes to turn the tables.
Unified Patents Inc. plans to recruit companies for a collective effort to deter patent lawsuits or legal threats against its members.
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The first to join Unified are Internet giant Google Inc. and NetApp Inc., which makes data-storage hardware. But the venture plans to set itself apart by also recruiting small tech companies, which often have trouble defending themselves.
"What we end up doing is making a group of small companies no longer look like an easy target," said Kevin Jakel, Unified's chief executive.
Unified's plan is one of many responses to the rise of companies that specialize in making money from patents, often while doing little in the way of invention or selling products. That distinction is important because such companies—often called NPEs, for "nonpracticing entities," or, more derisively, "patent trolls"—don't operate businesses that can be countersued, a common patent defense.
PatentFreedom, an organization that tracks such firms, said the number of operating companies named in lawsuits involving NPEs more than tripled between 2008 and 2012, even after adjusting to exclude a recent surge in suits caused by a change in U.S. patent laws.
Firms such as RPX Corp. and Allied Security Trust, or AST, were formed in recent years to help patent defendants, largely by buying up patents to keep them out of the hands of NPEs. But the amount of litigation keeps rising, Mr. Jakel said, with small companies increasingly bearing the brunt of the lawsuits.
Colleen Chien, an assistant professor at Santa Clara University Law School, estimates that companies with $10 million or less in revenue account for 55% of the defendants targeted by entities that specialize in asserting patents.
Such plaintiffs use a variety of techniques to make it more economical to assert patents, she said. In some cases, firms send letters threatening patent suits to many small companies at once in the hopes that a sizable number will pay for licenses rather than taking the risks of fighting patent cases in court. Money earned from that practice can help fund further attacks on small or large companies.
Unified plans to use a variety of techniques to make such tactics more expensive and more risky. The firm was founded by Mr. Jakel, who previously served as head of intellectual property litigation at Intuit Inc., and Brian Hinman, a former chief executive of AST who most recently served as a vice president at InterDigital Communications Inc.
One key strategy is defining specific technology fields to defend, making it easier to identify and track a limited number of relevant patents. Unified intends to start with two such "micro-pools." One focuses on technologies for managing payments on mobile devices, and the other focuses on Web-powered services known as "cloud storage."
In another approach, Unified plans to use small-company members as a kind of early warning system—both when NPEs approach them about potentially purchasing their patents and when they are threatened with litigation by the NPEs.
Once alerted, Unified will be able to spread the word to other members and pursue countermoves, such as offering to buy the small-company patents itself, Messrs. Jakel and Hinman said. They also expect to ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to re-examine the patents wielded by the NPEs, increasing the risk that they will be declared invalid.
While defendants frequently use the latter tactic after they are sued, starting the process earlier can raise the costs for NPEs and make enforcing particular patents less attractive, Mr. Jakel said.
But Paul Ryan, CEO of Acacia Research Corp., one of the best-known firms that buys and licenses patents, said re-examinations aren't a decisive defense if the patents involved are valid. "We are very selective," Mr. Ryan said of the patents Acacia buys. "We reject a lot of patents for various reasons."
Unified isn't disclosing how much it will charge members, but it plans to bill large companies higher fees than smaller ones. Douglas Luftman, NetApp's chief intellectual property counsel, said in a statement that Unified's business model represents a "cost-effective" way to challenge "dubious" patents.
The venture also is likely to face competition from RPX, AST and others. But Daniel McCurdy, AST's chief executive, thinks the efforts to help defendants may be complementary. "The more the merrier," he said.
No, they didn't, unfortunately.
Stocks are like shy nocturnal animals. Shine a light on them and they turn tail and flee.
Are you suggesting the black box was influenced by one or more of ARIA's competitors?
Interesting even if not necessarily significant that CLF is green in the face of this morning's news.
Seems to me it's also legally dangerous.
since its launching of Iclusig last December, the stock has already appreciated 55%,
It has?
hmmm - I own some Hercules Tech Growth.
I hope they know what they're doing....
As empty a threat as I've ever seen anywhere.
I personally know individuals who are currently putting together a file to be sent to the FBI containing your articles, emails, blogs, texts, and tweets (yes they are now admissible in court), with respect to the above said trail events. I suggest you also put together said file (it may save you thousands in attorney fees), as I would expect the FBI would at least have some "questions" for you.
Continuing elimination of low quality chinese steel plants?
I'd just finished reading the article before I came on here and that was my thought almost to the word.
Actually it sounds hardly believable that a manager would be so stupid as to perpetrate such an easily detectable fraud.
WSJ
India accused Mondelez's Cadbury unit of dodging about $46 million in taxes by pretending to produce candy at a factory that didn't exist, getting a tax exemption for new plants
Thanks for the clarification. Up a penny on the news.
I used to own IMUC, but sold when it appeared they were very good at cosmetics.
CLF, which I bought a dollar ago last week, is having trouble finding a bottom.
People don't like to be blindsided.
Patent, or patent application?
ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. (“ImmunoCellular”) (NYSE MKT: IMUC) announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a key patent application covering ICT-121, an immunotherapeutic vaccine targeting CD133, an important cancer stem cell marker that is commonly overexpressed on a broad range of solid tumors.
Is there a difference between issuing a patent and issuing a patent application?
they just had next-to-no ownership to start with.
True, but they had an interest in an instrument that would decrease in value if the underlying performed badly. Thy made a decision to largely reduce or eliminate that risk
NGN? NEO?
Since I renewed my premium membership a week or so ago, my screen has been taken over by ads and pop-ups. I thought premium was supposed to be ad-free?
It's also typical of the Cramer effect - evanescent.
Doesn't work for me, unfortunately. Annoying.
CLF seems like a good speculation judging from that terribly oversold chart.
But not DVAX, which I also own.
AH paired trades (800 and 1000 a side) are always suspicious. Tho these two might the exception.
(Hope so - I'd already set aside enough for an expensive Asian trip - then - Doomsday!)
It wouldn't be the first time analysts jump on the bandwagon after a huge run.
Merrill
Note: 3M (MMM) has been added to the US 1 list today. Today's closing price will be the addition price for the stock.
I suspect quite a few patients never even tell me what they are taking.
And the reason is - people don't like to be sneered at, like the junior doctor at Duke who came in flipping his clipboard with a smirky smile and -"oh you're the one who takes curcumin."
Actually, that's a good article. I now take few supplements - too many double edged swords. What's good for me may also be excellent for the cancer cells I happen to be harboring.
So did I, for the same reasons - blindsiding.
I actually made the price of a Big Mac - I bought at the time of the swoon a little under a year ago when an analyst put out a dire prediction they would not cover their dividend. Turns out he was more right than not.
This led to a 50% gain the the stock
Feb 8 (Reuters) - Oncolytics Biotech Inc said a mid-stage trial of its experimental lung cancer drug showed that 95 percent of the patients experienced a reduction in the size of their tumors.
The drug, Reolysin, was used intravenously in combination with chemotherapy drugs carboplatin and paclitaxel. It was tested on patients suffering from metastatic or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.
Squamous cell carcinomas account for about a fourth of all lung cancers, the company said in a statement.
"Based on these findings we intend to continue to look at Reolysin as a treatment for cancers of the lung and cancers that metastasize to the lung," Chief Executive Brad Thompson said.
The results further suggest that Reolysin may have potential use in pre-surgical settings, the company said.
Shares of the Calgary-based company, which has a market value of C$279 million, closed at C$3.57 on Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
I've given up responding to the Fidelity notices of offers of participation. The picayune number they dole out makes it a waste of time.
The Cramer shares your enthusiasm --
Don't just stand there, do something!" exclaimed an animated Jim Cramer.
The Mad Money host just couldn't control his enthusiasm after word surfaced that hedge fund Elliott Management will nominate five executives to Hess Corp's board as it pitches a plan to break up the U.S. oil and gas company to boost returns for investors.
"This colossal and colossally underperforming independent oil and gas explorer and producer, which is now the subject of proxy fight by a very aggressive hedge fund, has already vaulted ten points on the news, and I think it can go much higher if the company gets sold or takes the advice of the hedge fund and splits up its assets," said Cramer.<snip>
YPF was not a good omen.
VALE has suspended work at its $5.9bn potash project in Argentina indefinitely as the world’s biggest producer of iron ore cuts back investment to the lowest level in three years.
The Rio de Janeiro-based company confirmed on Wednesday that workers at its Rio Colorado project had still not returned after a Christmas break, adding that the project had been put on hold for an “indefinite period”.
The projValeect in Argentina’s Mendoza province was first thrown into limbo in June 2011 when local authorities temporarily suspended works over allegations that the Brazilian company had failed to meet requirements to hire and buy supplies locally.
The sudden nationalisation of YPF last year also raised doubts over the future of Rio Colorado, which had been expected to start producing 2.4m tonnes of potash per year from 2014.
More recently, the project has become a target of Vale’s cost-cutting efforts. Last month, the company cut the 2013 budget for the project to $611m from $1.08bn last year. Roger Downey, Vale’s coal and fertilisers executive director, also said Vale was slowing its operations at Rio Colorado and looking for a potential partner at the mine.
However, Vale and local authorities in Argentina have made it clear there is no intention to cancel the project altogether.
The move comes as the Brazilian company slashes investments by $1.2bn this year to the lowest level since 2010, as it struggles to adjust to the recent slowdown across its main markets.
The price of iron ore, which accounts for about 90 per cent of Vale’s profits, slumped to a three-year low in September last year as growth slowed in China and steelmakers across Europe and the US curtailed purchases.
As part of its retrenchment, Vale has dropped its vast Simandou iron ore development in Guinea from its investment plan and disposed of non-core assets already in production, such as its Colombian thermal coal operations.
Vale also has been looking to sell its stakes in oil and gasfields in Brazil, estimated to be worth around $1bn.
What's due diligence for, if not to uncover such things? After all the examples of the unreliability of Chinese corporate accounting ....
Sounds as bad as HPQ and Autonomy.
Is this similar to what NEO does?
With IV's in the 200 range???
Did the study adjust for the possibility that low B.M.I.'s might be such because of some medical condition that might affect their longevity?