Piper, Tina --- "Watch What You Export: The History of Medical Exceptions from Patentability" [2009] ELECD 502; in Castle, David (ed), "The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Biotechnology Innovation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Biotechnology Innovation

Editor(s): Castle, David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847209801

Section: Chapter 18

Section Title: Watch What You Export: The History of Medical Exceptions from Patentability

Author(s): Piper, Tina

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

18. Watch what you export: the
history of medical exceptions
from patentability
Tina Piper

INTRODUCTION

The analysis and implementation of intellectual property rights (IPRs) are
often based on the assumption that IPRs will work similarly in different
countries. For example, stated generally, patent protection which incentiv-
izes innovation in the United States will spur innovation in the developing
world. The export and implementation of IPRs may further rely on the
notion that they are critical to the regulation of a particular industry or
technology. Without the particular provision, useless or overbroad patents
or no patents at all would be granted, unnecessarily blocking innovation
and its commercialization.
Both propositions rely on a common foundation. They presume that
it is understood how and why particular IPRs function in the domestic
regime. In fact, this may not often be the case. The patent law of the domi-
nant law exporters (United States, United Kingdom, Europe) developed
in response to local economic, political and social conditions. In addition,
often limited work has been undertaken to understand the effect of par-
ticular provisions of the patent law under different political, social and
economic conditions.
This chapter presents a brief case-study of IPRs related to medical
methods. Medical methods are an important exception to the general pat-
entability of biotechnology subject matter. Medical methods are excluded
from patentability by the patent laws of over 80 countries. Their exclusion
is a common, almost automatic, feature in the harmonized, globalized
intellectual property patent law world.1 While ...