Brazil Takes Steps To Import Cheaper AIDS Drug Under Trade Law : Chilling Signal to Researchers or Heroic Action to Save Lives?

Brazil does it again, read the whole story on

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=614&res=1024&print=0

"The government of Brazil has issued a license that will allow the importation of cheaper versions of a patented HIV/AIDS drug after negotiations failed to bring about agreement on price reductions with Merck, the US company holding the patent. Merck said it was “profoundly disappointed,” as Brazil’s action sparked a flurry of positive and negative reactions. "

"Thailand offered three compulsory licenses in late 2006 and early 2007 for two HIV/AIDS drugs (including efavirenz) and a heart disease drug (IPW, Public Health, 12 March 2007). Among other countries that have issued CLs for pharmaceuticals are Canada, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia and Mozambique, the Brazilian Health Ministry said. "

Remember Canada did it in the times of Anthrax scare, when Apotex manufactured huge stocks of Ciprofloxacin (patent held by Bayer) ...

Seems like other countries might follow the suit....Novartis is fighting a court case in India for another patent violation...The IP battle in pharmaceuticals is really heating up....

Patent Infringement

Since working on the ultracapacitor project I have been following the ultracapacitor market a little bit. And low and behold, today there's a news item that Maxwell Technologies, the market and patent leader, got a preliminary injunction against the Korean company NessCap, one of the companies I mentioned that doesn't have any IP:

http://www.sys-con.com/read/360713.htm

Maxwell Technologies, Inc. announced today that
a federal district court in the Southern District of California has issued an
order finding that Maxwell has established a likelihood of its success in the
patent infringement action it filed against Nesscap, Inc. and Nesscap, Ltd.
("Nesscap") in October 2006, accusing Nesscap's ultracapacitor products of
infringing two of Maxwell's U.S. patents. The court also determined that Maxwell
would be irreparably harmed if a preliminary injunction does not issue. As a
result, U.S. District Judge John A. Houston ruled that a preliminary injunction
will issue, prohibiting Nesscap from making, using, selling or offering to sell
its prismatic ultracapacitors in the United States while the litigation is
pending.

...On a related note, after Maxwell brought its infringement action against
Nesscap in San Diego in October 2006, Nesscap filed a patent infringement action
against Maxwell in federal district court in Delaware in December 2006.

So looks like NessCap does have one or more patents, I just couldn't find it. Too bad the patent # isn't referenced in the article.

I wonder if anybody came across some information regarding licensing of technologies. The Open Innovation book talks about most patents being near worthless, but then you hear about IBM's patent portfolio generating over a billion in revenues every year. So what do licensing agreements typically look like? % of revenue? Flat fee?