1.   He has filed a patent on his idea, and hopes to have a working prototype by the end of the year.

2.   And he, too, has been filing patents on his own work in developing the project.

3.   A patent has been filed for the gene that the team inserted.

4.   But inventors themselves are filing so many patents, and the applications are so long, that patent examiners are buckling under the strain.

5.   If Celera and Perkin Elmer are first to identify a gene sequence with implications for drug development, they can file a patent.

6.   IBM has filed more patents than any other company for the last three years in a row.

7.   It also started giving bonuses to researchers who filed patents.

8.   Last year, the East Rutherford, New Jersey-based company said it filed a patent on a product to unclog oil wells.

9.   Many Internet companies promptly started filing patents for their methods, and some of them then sued other companies for infringement.