In terms of patenting genetic information, I believe that Canada lies between Europe and the United States. As you know, even in the United States there are High Court rulings that are in waiting as related to patents on breast cancer genes and other genes that have been patented in the U.S. In Europe, patenting of genes is not permitted. There is no patenting of genes allowed in Europe.
In Canada, it is I think in between the two. We promote a very open access model for all of the genetic information we produce in terms of the projects we fund, so I believe that as we go forward there will be so much data out there that most of the data will be in the public domain for the patents on the front end of the value chain.
What my colleague here didn't say is that the Structural Genomics Consortium is responsible for producing over 25% of the world's whole domain of protein crystal structures, and 25% of that knowledge comes from his group. None of that is protected. It's one of the rules of the Structural Genomics Consortium. They will not patent any knowledge within that structure.
If pharma companies want to compete further down the value chain, they can, and they will. They'll bring in knowledge that's available to everyone, bring that in-house, and then use their proprietary technology to build a case.
I'm sorry. I'm going on.