Nicol, Dianne --- "Strong Patent Rights, Weak Patent Standards and Innovation in Biomedicine" [2009] ELECD 436; in Arup, Christopher; van Caenegem, William (eds), "Intellectual Property Policy Reform" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Intellectual Property Policy Reform

Editor(s): Arup, Christopher; van Caenegem, William

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848441637

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Strong Patent Rights, Weak Patent Standards and Innovation in Biomedicine

Author(s): Nicol, Dianne

Number of pages: 25

Extract:

4. Strong patent rights, weak patent
standards and innovation in
biomedicine
Dianne Nicol

I. INTRODUCTION
There can be little doubt that the relationship between patenting and innova-
tion is complex. Innovators who patent are provided with the advantage of a
head start in bringing their inventions to the marketplace, but for follow-on
innovators these same patents could block their route to market. An optimally
functioning patent system will properly balance the innovation advantage
provided to patent holders with the concomitant risk of innovation blockage
for follow-on users. With the advent of high technology, the pace of innova-
tion has increased dramatically. Questions need to be asked about whether the
current patent system, which has essentially remained unchanged for
centuries, is properly adapted to facilitate innovation in new areas of technol-
ogy.
In this chapter I explore the relationship between patenting and innovation
in one specific area of high technology ­ that of `translational' biomedical
research. This sector focuses on taking `the outcomes and innovations devel-
oped within the research context into clinical practice' (Kaye, Hawkins and
Taylor 2007, p. 739). This type of research is to be distinguished from pure or
basic research, traditionally performed in universities and other public
research organizations, and downstream research that is tied to manufacture,
marketing and product development, which would normally be conducted in-
house by large pharmaceutical companies or contracted out.
Much has been written about the extent to which patents and patent licences
in the biomedical sector could negatively impact on ...