Professor Mark Lemley is quoted in a San Francisco Chronicle story about biotech companies banding together to open up certain patents for common use in areas such as waste reduction:

This act of corporate altruism comes at a time when Congress is considering an overhaul of patent law. But that has proven to be a thorny problem, said Mark Lemley, an expert on patent law at Stanford University, because tech firms want the system to be a little looser, while biotech and drug companies want patent holders to keep their clout.

"Most of the proposals put the information technology industry on one side and the biomedical community on the other," he said.