Drug patent protection: How long is long enough? A recent Senate committee hearing on Bill S-17, Parliament's effort to comply with international trade rules by extending pharmaceutical patent protection to 20 years, inadvertently opened the door to a broader investigation of the inner workings of the country's pharmaceutical patent legislation.
The Virtual Currency Landscape. Virtual currencies such as Bitcoin are digital representations of value that function as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and/or a store of value. In many cases, virtual currencies are âconvertibleâ currencies; they are not legal tender, but they have an equivalent value in real currency. In terms of value, Bitcoin is the most prominent virtual currency. As of late January 2015, one bitcoin equaled roughly $207 (though the value is volatile), and all bitcoins in circulation totaled $2.85 billion.
A digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. A cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit because of this security feature.A defining feature of a cryptocurrency is that it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions makes them well-suited for a host of nefarious activities such as money laundering and tax evasion. defining feature of a cryptocurrency is that it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation. The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions makes them well-suited for a host of nefarious activities such as money laundering and tax evasion.