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The biotechnology industry has had its share of woes, but so far 'patent trolls' have not numbered among them. These companies, which profit by legally enforcing patents they own rather than developing products, may benefit from a 31 August ruling at a US federal court of appeal in Washington DC.

By Meredith Wadman of Nature magazine Was the case a fluke or a forewarning? Now that a federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit that sought to halt US government funding of research using human embryonic stem cells, scientists who depend on that support are left wondering whether the battle is truly over, or is merely moving on to a different arena. Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued his decision on 27 July, acknowledging a higher court's opinion that overruled a preliminary injunction that he had placed to suspend the funding last August (see 'Trying times' )