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The Andhra Journal of Industrial News
(An International Electronic Digest Published from the United States of America)
(Click here to subscribe to this free e-journal)

Chief Editor: Sreenivasarao Vepachedu, PhD, JD, LLM

 

Issue 14

5107 Kali Era , Paardhiva Year, Vaisakha month
2063 Vikramarka Era, Paardhiva Year, Vaisakha month
1927 Salivahana Era
Paardhiva Year, Vaisakha month
 2005 AD, May

Contents
Patent Search
Crestor
Software Piracy
The Dirty Dozen
Diclofenac



Patent Search
An invention must be novel and nonobvious to a person skilled in the art to which the invention pertains. An erroneously issued patent could be invalidated when the patentee attempts to enforce it. In general, the patent enjoys a presumption of validity.  However, if one found prior art references that were not considered by the Examiner, the validity could be questioned.  Approximately one-fifth of patents tested in court in the U.S. and Europe are invalidated, because they were issued in error.  Having a patent invalidated often means that all the investment in developing the invention and obtaining and enforcing the patent brings no benefit to the patentee.

Seeking patent protection of an invention is an expensive and time-consuming process. Obtaining a patent typically costs anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 and takes 1 to 3 years for an average invention. These costs can rise much higher if the invention is in a highly technical and specialized field, for example, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. The drafting and filing of a patent application typically costs between $3,000 for a simple mechanical invention prepared by a solo practitioner trying to build up his or her practice to $15,000 or even up to $50,000 for a pioneering patent application for a complex electrical or chemical invention prepared by a large firm.  As this is a large investment, it would be advantageous to determine whether or not the invention is patentable before investing the money and time involved in pursuing a patent. One way to do this is to conduct a prior art search. You'd be astonished how many so-called "new" ideas already have been patented, even if you've never seen anything remotely resembling them on store shelves or in catalogues. Accordingly, it is important to conduct thorough searches of the prior art early in development of invention and the patenting process.

Consequently, many inventors do a preliminary search before they apply for a patent because a search may yield information that could affect the patenting potential of their invention. A search may not only help inventors decide whether to pursue a patent but also whether to modify their efforts to improve the probability of getting a patent. However, no one is required by law to conduct a patent search.

Conducting the patent searches is challenging because the process involves multiple steps using resources with which many searchers are not familiar. Patent examiners at the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) spend about twelve hours investigating each patent application to determine whether the invention it describes is patentable. During that time, the examiner consults an average of thirty-eight databases containing patent and non-patent literature to determine whether the invention has ever before been described. (More Later)


Crestor
The FDA in March contended Crestor's risks were no greater than its competitors, and it rejected consumer efforts to remove the drug, made by AstraZeneca PLC, from store shelves. Instead, the FDA ordered a warning on the label, saying Crestor could cause serious muscle problems and kidney damage, especially among Asians and Indians. A new study, based on side effects reported to the FDA, said kidney problems and muscle weakness were two to eight times more frequent among Crestor users than those taking other cholesterol-lowering medications like Lipitor, Zocor and Pravachol.  The American Heart Association's journal Circulation said the cholesterol drugs, called statins and taken by millions of Americans, showed that most are very safe and that the risk of serious problems, even with Crestor, are very low. Another cholesterol drug, Baycol, was pulled from the market in 2001.


Software Piracy
A Study found rampant software piracy in Asia and Latin America.  Vietnam, the Ukraine and China have the highest software piracy rates in the world, according to the new study released May 18, 2005, by the Business Software Alliance. 


The Dirty Dozen
   
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are among the most dangerous of all man-made products or wastes, causing deaths, diseases and birth defects among humans and animals.   The Stockholm Convention aims to ban or strictly control production, import, export, disposal and use of POPs. U.N. experts met in Punta del Este, Uruguay, from May 2 to 6 for a review.  The 12 POPs are:

ALDRIN - A pesticide used to kill termites, grasshoppers and other insect pests. It can also kill birds, fish and humans. In one incident, aldrin-treated rice is thought to have killed hundreds of shorebirds along Texas's Gulf Coast.

CHLORDANE - Used to control termites and as a broad insecticide on a range of crops. Tests show it can kill birds and fish, may affect the human immune system and could be a carcinogen.

DDT - Perhaps the best known of the group, DDT was widely used during World War II to protect soldiers and civilians from malaria, typhus and other diseases spread by insects. About 20 nations have an opt-out to continue to use it to combat malaria. Long-term exposure has been associated with chronic ailments in humans. It also thins the shells of birds' eggs.

DIELDRIN - Used mainly to control termites and textile pests, it is highly toxic to fish and other aquatic creatures, especially frogs. In a U.S. survey, dieldrin was the second most common pesticide found in pasteurised milk.

DIOXINS - These chemicals are produced due to incomplete combustion, as well as from the manufacture of pesticides and other chlorinated substances. They are emitted mostly from the burning of hospital waste, municipal waste and hazardous waste and have been linked to a number of adverse effects in humans, including immune and enzyme disorders.

ENDRIN - An insecticide sprayed on the leaves of crops such as cotton and grains, it is also used to control mice and other rodents. It can persist in the soil for up to 12 years and find its way to water, where it is highly toxic to fish.

FURANS - Compounds created unintentionally from many of the same processes that produce dioxins, furans have been found in emissions from waste incinerators and automobiles. They are similar to dioxins and produce many of the same toxic effects.

HEPTACHLOR - Mostly used to kill soil insects and termites, it is believed to be responsible for the decline of many wild bird populations, including Canada geese and American kestrels in the Columbia River basin of the United States. High doses are also fatal to mink, rats and rabbits. It is classified as a possible human carcinogen.

HEXACHLOROBENZENE (HCB) - Introduced in 1945 to treat weeds, it kills fungi that affect food crops. When people in eastern Turkey ate HCB-treated seed grain between 1954 and 1959, they developed a variety of symptoms including colic. Several thousand developed a metabolic disorder called porphyria turcica and 14 percent died. HCB is found in food of all types.

MIREX - An insecticide mainly used to combat fire ants that has also been used as a fire retardant in plastics, rubber and electrical goods. Direct exposure does not seem to cause injury to humans but it has been classified as a possible human carcinogen.

POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS (PCBs) - These compounds are used in industry as heat exchange fluids, in electric transformers and as additives in paint and plastics. They are toxic to fish and have been linked to reproductive failure and immune system suppression in a number of wild animals including seals and mink. Large numbers of people have been exposed to PCBs through food contamination. Consumption of PCB-contaminated rice oil in Japan in 1968 and Taiwan in 1979 caused pigmentation of nails and fatigue, nausea and vomiting. Children born up to seven years after the Taiwan incident in infected mothers showed developmental delays and behavioural problems.

TOXAPHENE - An insecticide used on cotton, cereal grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables. It is highly toxic to fish and listed as a possible cause for cancer among humans.


Diclofenac
Another chemical that is polluting the world today is diclofenac.  Dozens of research projects throughout Europe and the USA have demonstrated the presence of a wide range of pharmaceutical compounds in the aquatic and terrestrial environments, and diclofenac is one of the most commonly found drugs in environmental samples. For many drug compounds, a large portion of the administered dose is not completely metabolised by the body, and the active compound is excreted either whole or only partially metabolised, entering sewage systems, or in the case of livestock, reaching soil and surface waters via manure deposited on the ground.

In the Indian Continent, the availability of diclofenac has increased greatly in recent years due to numerous market factors. The vultures in India are dying due to overuse of diclofenac now found widely polluting the environment. Although the drug, diclofenac, has been used in human medicine for decades globally, it was introduced to the veterinary market on the Indian continent during the early 1990s. The drug is cheap (less than US$1 for a course) and widely used in the treatment of inflammation, pain and fever in livestock. In Pakistan 92 percent of 84 veterinary stockists surveyed sold the drug on a daily basis.
 
Vultures appear to have been exposed to the drug while scavenging livestock carcasses.
In India, there is widespread abuse of the prescription laws which should restrict drug sales, with poor dose controls for humans and livestock, and this has arguably become more widespread in the past 5 years. Consequently diclofenac use is high, with high environmental concentrations, both in livestock and in natural waters, with devastating consequences for vultures. The situation is similar in parts of Afghanistan, Cambodia, Nepal and Pakistan. Research published in the scientific journal Nature in January 2004 has confirmed that veterinary use of diclofenac is responsible for the recent devastating declines in Indian vulture populations.  These findings are the result of a three-year study by The Peregrine Fund and Ornithological Society of Pakistan (BirdLife in Pakistan) investigating vulture mortalities in the Pakistan Punjab. The study found that 85 percent of 259 vultures examined had died of visceral gout, a condition caused by renal failure due to diclofenac.

In India, vultures have traditionally disposed of carcasses in cities, villages and the countryside, reducing the risk of disease and helping with sanitation. With the vultures gone, carcasses are likely to take much longer to be stripped, increasing the risk to health.

Vulture populations are already at critically low levels. Although the Indian Government has announced its support for a ban on the veterinary use of diclofenac (March 2005), this obviously needs to be implemented and properly enforced before vulture numbers can even start to recover. The ban also needs to be extended to neighbouring countries. http://www.birdlife.net/action/science/species/asia_vulture_crisis/index.html






Copyright ©1998-2005
Vepachedu Educational Foundation, Inc
Copyright Vepachedu Educational Foundation Inc., 2004.  All rights reserved.  All information is intended for your general knowledge only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for special medical conditions or any specific health issues or starting a new fitness regimen. Please read disclaimer.




Om! Asatoma Sadgamaya, Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya, Mrityorma Amritamgamaya, Om Shantih, Shantih, Shantih!
(Om! Lead the world from wrong path to the right path, from ignorance to knowledge, from mortality to immortality and peace!)
One World One Family




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Management
The Foundation
The Andhra Journal of Industrial News
The Telangana Science Journal
Mana Sanskriti (Our Culture) Journal
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