Who Owns Your Genes? Is the Patenting of Genetic Discoveries in the Public Interest?

03/08/2010

Members are invited to attend Who Owns Your Genes? a lecture by Professor Peter Cashman on the legal, policy and public interest questions arising out of the patenting of human genetic discoveries. The lecture will take place on **10 August 2010 **between 6.00pm-7.30pm at Sydney Law School.

To date, a substantial number of genetic 'discoveries' have been the subject of successful patent applications in Australia and in numerous other countries. This has given rise to a number of complex and controversial legal and policy questions. These issues are presently under consideration by a Senate inquiry in Australia and the subject of a test case in the United States brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation affiliated with the Benjamin N Cardozo School of Law [Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v United States Patent and Trademark Office, et al., SDNY].

Dr Peter Cashman is a barrister and Kim Santow Chair in Law and Social Justice at the University of Sydney. He was formerly: Commissioner in charge of the civil justice review with the Victorian Law Reform Commission; Commissioner jointly in charge of the reference on class actions with the Australian Law Reform Commission; founding Director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre; founder and senior partner of the firm Cashman & Partners which merged with the Melbourne firm Maurice Blackburn & Co to form the national firm Maurice Blackburn Cashman (now Maurice Blackburn Pty Ltd); Governor of the American Trial Lawyers' Association (now the American Association for Justice) and National President of the Australian Plaintiff Lawyers' Association (now the Australian Lawyers Alliance). He holds a degree in law and a diploma in criminology from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Laws degree and a PhD from the University of London. He has practised law in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

The lecture is FREE and pre-registration is not required. For more information about this or other lectures in the series, visit the Law School's web site, e-mail the events coordinator or phone (02) 9351 0259.

**3 August 2010 **