Three More Patent Plays

To everyone who responded to last week's column by sending in your favorite patent litigation plays, many thanks. Normally, I don't do consecutive columns on the same subject, but some of these stories are too good not to broadcast. The following, for instance:

Napro Biotherapeutics(NPRO Quote) holds what looks like a rock-solid patent covering the formulation of a drug called paclitaxel, which, under the brand name Taxol, is Bristol-Myers'(BMY Quote) -- and the world's -- biggest selling cancer drug.

Paclitaxel was discovered by the National Institutes of Health, so the compound itself isn't able to be patented. Bristol-Myers, however, has gotten around this by patenting things like use and dosage, which so far has given it a near-monopoly. ...