关键词:
Approximate
摘要:
Results from current homology-based search tools, designed to locatebiologically relevant sequences, present a level of uncertainty from an intellectual propertystandpoint. Once a naturally occurring or recombinant DNA or polypeptide sequence has beencharacterized and assigned a function, how is its uniqueness currently assessed from an intellectualproperty standpoint? Databases of patented sequences, such as the public database PAT (the patentsequences division of GenBank) and the proprietary database GENESEQ (provided by Derwent ThomsonScientific), are updated repositories that can be used to run patent searches. Apart from ancillaryannotation, patented sequence databases comprise the same type of information-DNA and polypeptidesequences--as primary DNA and protein databases such as EMBL, GenBank, and DDBJ. Being sequentiallyderived from the latter type of database, their formats are similar. Thus, database search toolssuch as BLAS and FASTA, which are designed to locate biologically relevant sequences, are alsousually used to assess the intellectual property contents of genes.