Actually, the number one holder of gene patents in the US is the US government. Celera s not on the list. Celera has not yet filed a patent on a human gene. We plan to, but we said we d do it in a highly focused fashion on limited ones of high value. Our goal is to make things broadly available.
Researchers can access the information from our website.
Researchers don t have to worry about patents unless they re trying to commercialise something. That s what people confuse a lot when they say somebody s patent is blocking their ability to do research, it turns out when you look closely at it that they re trying to do something to make money, not do basic research. I don t know of a situation where basic research has been impacted by a patent. It s certainly impacted by trade secrecy other genome companies work by keeping all their data totally secret, except for a limited number of subscribers. I think that a very big part of it is that people don t understand our model.