The trial in the United States District Court here comes at a time of growing controversy over biotechnology patents.

Genentech said it believed it was the first seizure by Japanese authorities to protect a biotechnology patent.

As it turned out, that was like giving up rights to a biotechnology patent.

Its ultimate impact on biotechnology patents remains to be determined.

Revenue from patent licensing constitutes about 2 percent of universities' research budgets, he estimated, and most of that comes from biotechnology patents.

Kauffman holds the founding broad biotechnology patents in combinatorial chemistry and applied molecular evolution.

A new biotechnology patent could help drug manufacturers meet that goal on their own.

The validity of early biotechnology patents is an issue that still clouds the fledgling 15-year-old industry.

"American biotechnology patents are being rendered useless."