IP: genetic copy protection

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Sat, 07 Nov 1998 12:49:23 -0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
From: David Honig <honig@sprynet.com>

        
A patent on a means to produce seeds which germinate, but
which produce plants whose seeds are sterile, was
reviewed in Science, p 850, 30 Oct 98 vol 282.

The trick is that the seeds are genetically engineered, 
and the seeds are 'activated' by an antibiotic (which
acts like a signal).  The purpose is to copy-protect
other engineered genes in the organism.

US pat 5,723,765

David Honig

From: Jeff.Hodges@stanford.edu 
X-Office: Pine Hall Rm 161; +1-650-723-2452 
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Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 13:35:28 -0800 
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This item seems legit. Here's the ibm patent dbase page on it..
http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/patlist?icnt=US&patent_number=5723765&x=25&y=9
..although I can't seem to find the cited blurb in Science online..
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol282/issue5390/#browse
..tho that may be a feature of the online version. 
Jeff

_____________________________________________________________________
David Farber         
The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems
University of Pennsylvania 
Home Page: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~farber