Table of Contents

RISK ASSESSMENT RESEARCH

Insect-Resistant GE Rice, Pesticide Use, and Rice Farmers' Health in China
Jikun Huang and Fangbin Qiao

The significant and multiple benefits that Genetically Engineered (GE) crops have generated have been well documented in the literature. However, the impact of GE crops on farmers' health due to the reduction of pesticide use has not been rigorously analyzed. Our recent study estimated the health impact of pesticide reduction on farmers through the adoption of GE rice. We focused on invisible health effects because they are more common and may ultimately lead to fatal disease.

REGULATORY NEWS

U.S. Patent Office revises rules, while courts give USDA nothing to whine about
Phill Jones

While the Supreme Court blissfully overturns decades of patent practice, the USPTO struggles to craft new patent examination guidelines. During March 2014, the USPTO issued guidelines for determining subject matter eligibility of claims reciting natural products. The unpopular document offered a confusing 12-factor test with a heavy focus on structural differences to establish markedly different characteristics.

An inventor can be barred from obtaining a patent if the claimed invention was used in public before the inventor filed a patent application on the invention. This restriction was designed to prevent the removal of an invention from the public domain after the public reasonably believes that the invention is freely available. In Delano Farms Company et al. v. California Table Grape Commission et al., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided whether the public use bar destroyed two plant patents for new varieties of grapes.