ESRC-COMPLEXITY SEMINAR SERIES
SEMINAR 1: COMPLEXITY & POLICY: THE GLOBAL GOVERNANCE OF NEW HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES
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SESSION 2: PATENTLY COMPLEX? EMERGING QUESTIONS ON PATENTS ON BIOTECHNOLOGICAL INVENTIONS
AURORA PLOMER & PETER TAYLOR
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ABSTRACT:
Basic research in the biosciences has the potential to bring dramatic improvements in the treatment of crippling and life-threatening diseases. A key concern since the extension of intellectual property rights to cover biological matter and DNA sequences has been the potential stifling effect that such patents may have on research, innovation and access to treatment. Whilst the commercial exploitation of research through the grant of intellectual property rights is perceived by policy makers and courts in developed economies as essential to economic growth, the evidence required to support the assumption has hitherto proved notoriously complex and elusive. This paper explores a spectrum of variables in the regulation of patents on biotechnological inventions, including the implications of the shifting boundaries of biological research for classification and access to patent data, the fuzzy boundaries of patentability criteria and their relationship to the evolving science, and the complex network of overlapping legal and ethical controls on research and patents in the biosciences. The overall aim of the paper is to identify some of the potential methodological difficulties in developing causal or reductionist models to model impact assessment in this field.