Genetic Inventions Intellectual Property Rights And Licensing Practices Evidence And Policies

Few topics in the life sciences today provoke as much debate as the availability of patent protection on "genetic inventions". Some hold that protection is essential to encourage innovation and development of new products. Others argue that patents ...

The cost of patent licenses needed to design a new genetic test or treatment may ultimately prevent research projects getting started, as individual components are protected by different patent owners. This book examines legal measures which might be used to solve the problem of fragmentation of patents in genetics.

Dr Rimmer s book is a marvellous introduction to a crucial topic of our time. He writes engagingly, provocatively and always with good humour. A highly technical and complex area of law has been reduced to clear descriptions and searching analysis. Truly, this is an important book on an essential topic that will help define the ethics of a future that includes nothing less than the future of our species. From the foreword by the Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG, the High Court of Australia . . . the author has done an excellent job by explaining the subject in an open and accessible manner. This book is a timely and very thought-provoking analysis of patent law and biotechnology. . . The book is a unique theoretical contribution to the controversial public debate over commercialization of biological inventions. . . there is an extensive bibliography. . . a valuable resource for further reading. The book will be of prime interest to lawyers and patent attorneys, scientists and researchers, business managers and technology transfer specialists. Journal of Intellectual Property Rights Rimmer s book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the issues and debate related to biological inventions, regardless of which side the reader is on. Stefan M. Miller, Journal of Commercial Biotechnology . . . this book gives an excellent account of the most celebrated biotechnology cases from three continents, and for this alone is to be thoroughly recommended. David Rogers, European Intellectual Property Review Rimmer has put a great deal of thought and effort into this series of chapters. For those looking at how to reform, direct and develop laws in relation to biotechnology, this book is brimming with ideas, suggestions and recommendations of what to do next. Rebecca Halford-Harrison, Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys . . . an excellent introduction to a wide range of legal thinking in an increasingly controversial and relevant area to humankind. Sharon Givoni, Australian Intellectual Property Law Bulletin Rimmer s new book is a timely and very thought-provoking analysis of patent law and biotechnology and asks a very serious question: can a 19th century patent system adequately deal with a 21st century industry? Kate McDonald, Australian Life Scientist This book documents and evaluates the dramatic expansion of intellectual property law to accommodate various forms of biotechnology from micro-organisms, plants, and animals to human genes and stem cells. It makes a unique theoretical contribution to the controversial public debate over the commercialization of biological inventions. The author also considers the contradictions between the Supreme Court of Canada rulings in respect of the Harvard oncomouse, and genetically modified canola. He explores law, policy, and practice in both Australia and New Zealand in respect to gene patents and non-coding DNA. This study charts the rebellion against the European Union Biotechnology Directive particularly in respect of Myriad Genetics BRCA1 and BRCA2 patents, and stem cell patent applications. The book also considers whether patent law will accommodate frontier technologies such as bioinformatics, haplotype mapping, proteomics, pharmacogenomics, and nanotechnology. Intellectual Property and Biotechnology will be of prime interest to lawyers and patent attorneys, scientists and researchers, business managers and technology transfer specialists.

Report of an inquiry concerned with two broad issues: the patenting of genetic materials and technologies, and the exploitation of these patents and the distinction that can and possibly should be made between discoveries and inventions when referring to claims over genetic sequences.

The patenting and licensing of human genetic material and proteins represents an extension of intellectual property (IP) rights to naturally occurring biological material and scientific information, much of it well upstream of drugs and other disease therapies. This report concludes that IP restrictions rarely impose significant burdens on biomedical research, but there are reasons to be apprehensive about their future impact on scientific advances in this area. The report recommends 13 actions that policy-makers, courts, universities, and health and patent officials should take to prevent the increasingly complex web of IP protections from getting in the way of potential breakthroughs in genomic and proteomic research. It endorses the National Institutes of Health guidelines for technology licensing, data sharing, and research material exchanges and says that oversight of compliance should be strengthened. It recommends enactment of a statutory exception from infringement liability for research on a patented invention and raising the bar somewhat to qualify for a patent on upstream research discoveries in biotechnology. With respect to genetic diagnostic tests to detect patient mutations associated with certain diseases, the report urges patent holders to allow others to perform the tests for purposes of verifying the results.

Intellectural property, biotechnology, genetic resources, government policies.