The Andhra Journal of Industrial News, November 2006, Issue 32, Vepachedu Educational Foundation

Contents
Patent Index OTPAT
Filing of Sequence Listings
Crazy Patents
Renewable Energy
Nitroglycerin Lingual Aerosol
Patent Loss Results in Layoff
Viagra for Babies
Tarantulas and Chilies
Lice Killer
Outlook for Chemists in the US

Patent Index OTPAT
The index, now on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol OTPAT, relies upon a formula that Ocean Tomo devised to determine which patents are more valuable than others. Patents typically are issued for 20 years, but they expire sooner unless their holders pay fees to keep them current. Ocean Tomo's formula uses a computer to look at dozens of aspects of each patent, such as the number of claims it makes, that are associated with the patent's likely longevity. The computer then scores each patent's value. Ocean Tomo has pioneered holding intellectual-property auctions to help people who own work covered by patents, copyrights and trademarks to cash in on their assets. The new patent stock index is another aspect of the company's efforts to help firms monetize intangible assets. If the index succeeds, listed companies should increase in value as more investors buy their stock.
Illinois companies in the Ocean Tomo 300 patent index:
- Abbott Laboratories
- Baxter International Inc.
- Caterpillar Inc.
- Deere & Co.
- Motorola Inc.
- Navteq Corp.
- Tellabs Inc.
- Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0611150143nov15,1,5375953.story

Filing of Sequence Listings on EFS-Web Version 1.1
http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2006/11/filing_of_seque.html

Crazy Patents!
For the USPTO to issue a patent, the invention must be novel, non-obvious, and "useful." The standard for usefulness is certainly the weakest of the three -- any possible utility, no matter how small, will suffice. And, useful does not necessarily mean commercially viable. In other words, you can get a patent on some crazy things that will never make it to the shelves of your local store. For instance:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/crazy.html

Renewable Energy
Wind can rightfully take the credit of being the fastest growing energy source in the world with an annual growth rate of more than 26 percent since 1990. Despite lack of gaps in policies and infrastructure for sale of power to the grid, wind power sector in India has been recording a high growth of over 40 percent. While the global installed capacity of wind energy was 60,000 MW by end of 2005, India stood fourth with 5,340 MW (as on March 31, 2006). Germany, Spain , United States, India and Denmark have been the leaders in wind energy exploitation. On Oct 1 this year, India 's installed capacity stood at 6,053 MW. With the identification of several new sites and work on to develop technology to generate electricity even in sites with low wind velocity, the ministry of new and renewable energy has raised its estimate of wind energy potential in the country from 45,000 MW to 60,000 MW. 'To tap the potential of wind power optimally, we need to review our policies toward renewable energy in general and wind power, solar power and bio-fuels in particular,' said Kalam addressing the two-day World Wind Energy Conference cum Exhibition 2006.

Nitroglycerin Lingual Aerosol
NovaDel Pharma Inc. announced that NitroMist(TM) (Nitroglycerin Lingual Aerosol) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for acute relief of an attack or acute prophylaxis of angina pectoris due to coronary artery disease. NitroMist(TM) is NovaDel's first product approval utilizing its proprietary oral spray technology. The North American commercial rights for NitroMist have been licensed to Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc.

Patent Loss Results in Layoff
Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drugmaker, will lay off 210 of its workers in Puerto Rico, a newspaper reported. The layoffs at the company's various plants in the U.S. Caribbean territory, were due to patents losses for some of its most important drugs, injectable antibiotic Zithromax and antidepressant Zoloft, Carlos del Rio, Pfizer's vice president of operations and manufacturing in Puerto Rico.

Viagra for Babies
A single dose of sildenafil, a blood vessel widening vasodilator (also sold under the brand name Viagra) that helps penile erection, prevented rebound pulmonary hypertension and significantly reduced the duration of mechanical ventilation in intensive care unit (ICU) infants being withdrawn from inhaled nitric oxide therapy. This research appears in the first issue for November 2006 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.

Tarantulas and Chilies
Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco have discovered that tarantulas and chilies use similar tactics to frighten off predators by causing pain. The venom of tarantula Psalmopoeus cambridgei, which is a native species in Trinidad and Tobago, contains toxins that trigger the same pain receptor on nerve cells throughout the body as hot chili peppers.
Capsaicin, the main pungent ingredient in hot chili peppers, sets it off. Both the spider and the plant have evolved a common mechanism to deter predators. The findings demonstrate that some plants and animals have evolved the same molecular strategy to deter predators, triggering pain by activating a specific receptor on sensory nerves. The research provides new tools to understand how these pain- and heat-sensing neurons work, and to help develop drugs that ease persistent pain, the scientists report. Their finding, based on studies of mice cells in culture and live mice, is published in the November 9 issue of the journal Nature.

The tarantula venom targets the heat sensor on nerve cells known as the capsaicin receptor, first cloned in 1997. The capsaicin and related receptors trigger nerves to fire pain signals when exposed to Death Valley-like heat or the fiery properties of peppery food, mustard oil and other compounds. Human pain-sensing neurons also have these receptors on their surface, and some pain treatments have been developed that target them. The capsaicin receptor acts as a channel on the nerve surface. When certain compounds bind to it, the receptor channel opens, allowing a stream of charged sodium and calcium molecules to rush into the nerve cell. This generates an electrical signal that travels to the brain to produce pain.

Lice Killer
A single 30-minute treatment with a hair dryer-like device kills head lice more effectively than chemical preparations, apparently by drying the bugs and their eggs to death. If the device, called the Louse Buster, wins U.S. regulatory approval, it could be on the market for schools, clinics and other institutional settings within two years, the report from the University of Utah said. The study, published in the November issue of "Pediatrics," the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the device blows air at a slightly cooler temperature than a hair dryer. The parasites may be dried to death, the study said. Previous research had found that lice eggs, called nits, lose their amniotic fluid in hot conditions making it difficult for them to hatch. An earlier study involving a hair rinse using the pesticide permethrin killed 60 percent of eggs, compared to 98 percent mortality with the dryer. The hot air dryer is also likely to avoid the problem of lice developing drug-resistant strains, the authors said.

Outlook for Chemists in the US
While chemical scientists and engineers who have not changed jobs continue to post gains in salary of close to 5 percent per year, unemployment figures for the past year only dropped modestly, according to the November 6 Employment Outlook section in Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. The percentage of chemists in the domestic workforce who are ACS members and didn't have fulltime jobs as of March 2006 was 8.7 percent, C&EN says. This was down from 9.2 percent from a year earlier, but well above the most recent low of 5.4 percent in 2001. The median salary for chemists in the same job rose to $86,900 this year, from $83,000 in 2005; the pay for those with bachelor's degrees went from $64,000 in 2005 to $67,200 this year; for master's degrees, from $75,000 to $79,000; and for Ph.D.'s, from $92,000 to $96,000. The median is the point at which half of the salaries are above that point and half are below it. A sign of changing demographics in the chemistry field, female graduates received a greater percentage of the B.S. chemistry degrees in 2005 than males -- 52.3 percent compared to 47.7 percent. This is a significant change from the breakdown for all working chemists, where 65.2 percent are male and 34.8 percent are female. Hispanics and Blacks each made up 6 percent of the B.S. chemistry graduates in 2005. This, too, is growth compared with 3.6 percent and 2.8 percent respectively in the pool of all working chemists. To read the full C&EN Employment Outlook Section, go to: http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/84/8445cover.html

Source: The primary sources cited above, BBC News, New York Times (NYT), Washington Post (WP), Mercury News, Bayarea.com, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Intellihealthnews, Deccan Chronicle (DC), the Hindu, Hindustan Times, Times of India, AP, Reuters, AFP, womenfitness.net etc.

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