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The "Terminator" Patent And Its Discontents: Rethinking The Normative Deficit In Utility Test Of Modern Patent Law, Ikechi Mgbeoji

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Arguably, no other biotechnological invention has been excoriated with so much confused rhetoric on “utility” as the invention relating to Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (“GURTs”) patented in the United States, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark and many other countries. Otherwise known by their rather inflammatory nickname of both “terminator patents,” GURTs have become the lightning rod for both technophiles and Luddites. At the heart of the controversy is a misunderstanding of the changed meaning of the concept of utility in patent law. This paper argues that while the public understanding of utility as social usefulness is well grounded in history …