Gene Patents and Collaborative Licensing Models: Patent Pools, Clearinghouses, Open Source Models and Liability Regimes

Abstract:     
Concerns have been expressed that gene patents might result in restricted access to research and health care. The exponential growth of patents claiming human DNA sequences might result in patent thickets, royalty stacking and, ultimately, a ‘tragedy of the anti-commons’ in genetics. The essays in this book explore models designed to render patented genetic inventions accessible for further use in research, diagnosis or treatment. The models include patent pools, clearing house mechanisms, open source structures and liability regimes. They are analysed by scholars and practitioners in genetics, law, economics and philosophy. The volume looks beyond theoretical and scholarly analysis by conducting empirical investigation of existing examples of collaborative licensing models. Those models are examined from a theoretical perspective and tested in a set of operational cases. This combined approach is unique in its kind and prompts well founded and realistic solutions to problems in the current gene patent landscape.

• Descriptions of major models currently used to deal with patent thickets enable the reader to develop a complete view of the models and evaluate existing operational examples • Case studies describe how each model functions, and the critical evaluations enable the reader to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the various models • Concluding chapters analyse and compare solutions put forward by the various authors, thereby examining openings for the future.

Keywords: Sharing gene patents, Genetic diagnostics, Blocking patents, Refusal to license, Patent thickets, Translational gap, Valley of death, Pools, Clearinghouses, Open source, Liability regimes, Public private interaction, Open biotechnology, MPEG LA, SARS, PIPRA, Science Commons, CAMBIA, BiOS, ITPGRFA

JEL Classification: D23, D45, H 41, H51, I18, K11, L14, L4, L 65, O13, O31, O32, O34

Accepted Paper Series