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Public Vs. Proprietary Science: A Fruitful Tension?, Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Richard R. Nelson
Public Vs. Proprietary Science: A Fruitful Tension?, Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Richard R. Nelson
Articles
What should be public and what should be private in scientific research? The competitive sprint of public and private laboratories to complete the sequence of the human genome has brought this question to the fore. The same question frames the developing struggle over terms of access to human embryonic stem cell lines and the conflict between Microsoft and the open source movement over how best to promote software development. We expect such conflicts to become more widespread as the role of for-profit research expands in a broader range of scientific fields. Will science progress more swiftly and fruitfully if its …
The Role Of Patents In Exploiting The Genome, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
The Role Of Patents In Exploiting The Genome, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Book Chapters
The sequencing of the human genome is a great scientific accomplishment that opens the door to further scientific inquiry of a sort that would otherwise be impossible. In addition to being passionately interested in the patent issues this research presents, as a legal scholar I have a long-standing interest in the role of intellectual property in interactions between the public and private senators and between universities and private firms in research science, with a focus on biomedial research. However, although the Human Genome Project has provided a rich terrain for exploring these issues, I am puzzled that intellectual property issues …
The Promise And Perils Of Strategic Publication To Create Prior Art: A Response To Professor Parchomovsky, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
The Promise And Perils Of Strategic Publication To Create Prior Art: A Response To Professor Parchomovsky, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Articles
In a provocative recent article in the Michigan Law Review, Professor Gideon Parchomovsky observes that a firm racing with a competitor to make a patentable invention might find it strategically advantageous to publish interim research results rather than risk losing a patent race. This strategy exploits legal rules limiting patent protection to technological advances that are new and "nonobvious" in light of the "prior art" or preexisting knowledge in the field. By publishing research results, a firm adds to the prior art and thereby limits what may be patented in the future. Parchomovsky posits that, before it is able to …
Intellectual Property At The Public-Private Divide: The Case Of Large-Scale Cdna Sequencing, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Intellectual Property At The Public-Private Divide: The Case Of Large-Scale Cdna Sequencing, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Articles
The Human Genome Project provides fertile ground for studying the role of intellectual property at the wavering boundary between public and private research science. It involves a major commitment of both public and private research funds in an area that is of significant interest both to research scientists working in university and government laboratories and to commercial firms. It thus provides a wealth of new scientific discoveries that are simultaneously potential candidates for commercial development and inputs into further research. Its obvious implications for human health raise the stakes of getting the balance between private property and public access right, …
A Technology Policy Perspective On The Nih Gene Patenting Controversy, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
A Technology Policy Perspective On The Nih Gene Patenting Controversy, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Articles
This article will use the NIH patent controversy as a focal point for considering when the results of government-sponsored research should be patented and when they should be dedicated to the public domain. First, this article will review the recent history of federal government policy on patenting the results of government-sponsored research. Next, this article will highlight some of the complexities involved in achieving technology transfer from the public sector to the private sector that current policy may oversimplify. With this background, this article will return to a more detailed analysis of the NIH cDNA patenting controversy and consider the …
Patent Rights In The Human Genome Project, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Patent Rights In The Human Genome Project, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Book Chapters
The various research efforts that comprise the Human Genome Project will inevitably both draw on and yield a multitude of patentable inventions. The broad subject matter of the patent laws potentially reaches every phase of the Genome Project, from the discovery of new research technologies, such as techniques and equipment for DNA sequencing, through the ultimate development of new products, such as screening tests for genetically transmitted diseases. Even bits and pieces of the human genome itself may be, and sometimes have been, patented.' Nor does the fact that the public is paying for the Genome Project through federal funding …
Patenting The Human Genome, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Patenting The Human Genome, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Articles
The increasing promise of federal funding for mapping and sequencing the human genome has brought with it renewed attention in the research science community to issues of intellectual property protection for products of biotechnology research. Echoing concerns raised a decade ago in the debate over commercialization of academic biomedical research, scientists have called for the free availability of all information generated through the Human Genome Project and have argued against allowing private intellectual property rights in such knowledge. Meanwhile, private parties have quietly been obtaining patents on bits and pieces of the human genome from the Patent and Trademark Office …