‘The Genetic Code is 3.6 Billion Years Old: It’s Time for a Rewrite': Questioning the Metaphors and Analogies of Synthetic Biology and Life Science Patenting

Annabelle Lever (ed.), New Frontiers in the Philosophy of Intellectual Property. Cambridge University Press, 2012

31 Pages Posted: 27 Dec 2018

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

This chapter is about science, patent law and the use of language that supports the extension of patent claims ever deeper into the realms of nature. By language I refer in particular to the use of figures of speech, terminologies and epistemologies that both express and support powerful explanatory and justificatory conceptual systems. Undoubtedly, chemical, informational and mechanistic ways of understanding life have all been enormously helpful to scientists, as are the metaphors and analogies which frame their verbal and written forms of expression. The point of the chapter is not to undermine them, but to examine critically what implications they have for patent law and policy, in particular their consequences for the positioning of boundaries between the patentable and the unpatentable.

Keywords: patents, intellectual property, sythetic biology, metaphor, analogy

JEL Classification: O3

Suggested Citation

Dutfield, Graham, ‘The Genetic Code is 3.6 Billion Years Old: It’s Time for a Rewrite': Questioning the Metaphors and Analogies of Synthetic Biology and Life Science Patenting (2012). Annabelle Lever (ed.), New Frontiers in the Philosophy of Intellectual Property. Cambridge University Press, 2012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3297282

Graham Dutfield (Contact Author)

University of Leeds ( email )

School of Law
Liberty Building
Leeds, LS2 9JT
United Kingdom
0113 343 1606 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://leeds.academia.edu/GrahamDutfield

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