>W and M in part believe that these threads are useful to pump up people's courage to buy the hot stocks whatever the price.
It was their stocks not just hot stocks. Fortunately there were not enough investors on this thread to buy into the bull shit.
Anyone buying into W and M top picks in the year 2000 are now on welfare.
Btw
Billy's Cra has farther to go down...again. But according to him he only paid 17 for it;-)
>LOS ANGELES, May 14 (Reuters) - Early federal funding of gene sequencer developed by California university scientists who formed a company that is now part of PE Corp. <PEB.N>, could compromise the company's patents on the technology, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.
PE Corp., headquartered in Foster City, Calif., makes gene sequencers that are being used to decode the human genetic blueprint, an achievement that could revolutionize medicine by allowing scientists to pinpoint the cause of diseases. The company is also the parent of Rockville, Md.-based Celera Genomics Group <CRA.N>, which is using the sequencer machines in an all-out effort to be the first to decipher the entire human genetic code and claim property rights to it.
Celera's chief rival, the publicly led Human Genome Project, also uses PE sequencers but is making its findings immediately and freely available to the public.
Both efforts expect to complete first drafts of the genetic code next month.
The Times reported that a series of federal grants were made to scientists at the California Institute of Technology in the mid-1980s to devise and improve the machine, including a $2.5-million National Science Foundation grant specifically "to automate DNA sequencing."
If the grants were used in inventing the device, the government would be due some rights to the results, but the developers say they had already invented the machine when the federal money started to flow, according to the newspaper.
In 1988 Caltech entered into a licensing agreement giving nearly exclusive authority to use the sequencer technology to a company started by the inventors, something not commonly done at the time when federal funds were involved.
PE subsequently purchased the firm and, according to one recent study, captured 92 percent of the U.S. market for sequencers. The agreement included provisions promising the government discounts when federal funds are used.
The newspaper said it also reviewed letters and memos that show the machine's inventors bickered over its creation in ways that some experts say could jeopardize their government-issued patents.
The government is studying whether to challenge the patents, according to the Los Angeles newspaper.
Representatives for Caltech, PE and the researchers credited with the invention all said that no federal funds were used in developing the machine. They also denied there was anything improper about the 1988 licensing agreement and said there were no disagreements between the inventors that threaten their patents.
They acknowledged that the developers may have slipped up by filing over-exuberant grant applications, but described any mistakes as innocent. "Based on everything we know at this time, we believe we handled the invention and patenting of the sequencer in an entirely proper manner," Caltech Provost Steven E. Koonin told the paper.
Michael Hunkapiller, president of PE Biosystems, the PE affiliate that manufactures the sequencer, reportedly said he expects no impact on the company from the federal investigation and newly raised questions about the machine's invention.
13:54 05-14-00 |
