Intellectual property lawyer to discuss patenting plants at Iowa State on Feb. 16

01-25-12

Contacts:

Pat Miller, Lectures Program, 515-294-9935, pamiller@iastate.edu

Teddi Barron, News Service, 515-294-4778, tbarron@iastate.edu

Intellectual property lawyer to discuss patenting plants at Iowa State on Feb. 16

AMES, Iowa - Edmund Sease, a trial lawyer with more than 30 years of experience litigating intellectual property cases, will speak at Iowa State University on Feb. 16. "The Case for Patenting New Plants" will be at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Union Great Hall.

Sease's talk is part of Iowa State's all-day symposium, "Who Owns Life: Intellectual Property in Biotechnology and the Life Sciences." The symposium will present issues of intellectual property protection specific to the plant and life sciences. Sessions include:
• "Ethical Analysis of Objibway Objections to Wild Rice Research" -- Robert Streiffer, associate professor, Department of Medical History and Bioethics and the Philosophy Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• "Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property" -- Shontavia Johnson, assistant professor, Drake University Law School

• "Changing Tides or A Drop in the Bucket? Challenges to Plant Patenting in the U.S. and Abroad"
-- Margo Bagley, professor, University of Virginia School of Law

• "The Ethics of Patenting Human DNA" --
David Resnik, author of "Owning the Genome: A Moral Analysis of DNA Patenting"

Sease argued before the United States Supreme Court in a precedent-setting case on the patent eligibility of genetically modified plants. He also has represented clients before the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Sease is a partner in the Des Moines firm, McKee, Voorhees and Sease PLC, and is an adjunct professor at Drake University Law School. He has taught copyright, trademark and patent law, and courses in intellectual property litigation at Drake and at the University of Iowa College of Law.

All events are free and open to the public. Sease's lecture is cosponsored by the Bioethics Program, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, National Affairs, Office of Biotechnology, the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Pioneer DuPont and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body. More information is available at http://www.lectures.iastate.edu, or by calling 515-294-9935.

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