Intellectual Property Rights and Biotechnology: How to Improve the Present Patent System

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in Intellectual Property Rights and Biotechnology: How to Improve the Present Patent SystemSummary This paper discusses the problems related to assigning or denying intellectual property rights to biotechnological innovation, with particular reference to agro-biotechnologies and the relations between developed and developing countries. There are two types of problems to consider. First, the aim of protecting property rights on innovations is to create incentives towards research and innovation in general, which in some cases may be beneficial to society, in others not so. If the assignment of an intellectual property right does not guarantee the potential beneficial use of new knowledge, not assigning rights would not prevent its potentially dangerous utilization. Secondly, the holder of an intellectual property right has a power of exclusion which limits access by others to the newly produced knowledge. However, the production of new knowledge is very often a process which starts from a base of existing knowledge. Hence, discouraging access to existing knowledge also means discouraging the process of producing new knowledge. Paradoxically then, in protecting intellectual property we obtain the opposite result to the one expected and desired. Moreover, the holder of an intellectual property right may end up with excessive market power when commercializing the innovation. This paper will try to show that these problems cannot be solved, as sometimes is suggested, by denying protection of property rights on innovations, but by improving the procedures for awarding these rights and accompanying them with other measures such as liability rules governing potential damage and also antitrust measures.

An Economic Model for Bioprospecting Contracts

“…On the one hand, patent rights grant the holder exclusion power from research or exclusion power from the market. They encourage the creation of new, economically valuable knowledge and increase competitiveness within an appropriate regulatory framework (Musu 2005;Thumm 2005). On the other hand, many critics believe that the patent system creates entry barriers and overly strong monopoly positions, thus hindering the development of new knowledge (Lawson 2004;Musu 2005;Thumm 2005).…”

“…They encourage the creation of new, economically valuable knowledge and increase competitiveness within an appropriate regulatory framework (Musu 2005;Thumm 2005). On the other hand, many critics believe that the patent system creates entry barriers and overly strong monopoly positions, thus hindering the development of new knowledge (Lawson 2004;Musu 2005;Thumm 2005). In the remaining body of the paper, we attempt to apply a formal economic analysis so as to identify the different patenting schemes involved in pharmaceutical bioprospecting contracts and their economic impacts on stakeholders' objective functions, the overall level of genetic resource protection and human welfare.…”