Patenting genes: looking into the pros and cons of genetic patents
Intellectual Property is an intangible asset. It is a creativity of an individual that may well have a commercial value. There are a number of varieties of items that come under the intellectual property rights like-copyrights, patents, product designs, etc.
In USA, the US department of Trademark and Patent Office is responsible for taking care of the trademark related problems. United Nations also controls the Intellectual Property rights related problems. Their role becomes particularly important when an intellectual property is sold across the globe. For example video albums of Michael Jackson are sold across the globe. In today’s digital world his copyrighted songs may possibly be exchanged across the internet or offline. This results in copyright violations and loss for the music firm, in terms of revenue, who holds the copyright.
United Nations does this with the help of its subsidiary identified as the World Intellectual Property Organization (W.I.P.O). This domain of law is almost certainly the fastest evolving. One of the numerous new emerging sectors in USA as well around the globe is nanotechnology and Biotechnology. This is yet another branch where Intellectual Property Lawyers will need to adapt. This is due to the fact of its extremely technical nature.
The Myriad Genetics (Utah, USA) company’s policy concerning genetic patentability of BRCA1 and BRCA2 and certain diagnostics process related to genetics have been criticized. There has been a enormous debate on the pros and cons of patenting genes:-
• Biotechnology is closely related to the pharmaceutical business. There are about 5000 patents granted in USA in 2001. This has promoted invention.
• It is fairly simple to implement patents on drugs or pharmaceuticals since of their simplicity.
• Patents encourage numerous industries to venture in Investigation and development.
• Before US policy of patenting items of the biotechnology sector, most analysis was either government sponsored or university projects.
• Patents may possibly interest the venture capital firms to invest more in biotechnology sector.
• Patenting will promote collaborative study from a broad field.
The aforesaid benefits are not without having its inherent disadvantages:-
• Forced specialization due to fear of intellectual property proper infringement
• Increased expenses due to more frequent litigations.
• License fees of patented items will raise the cost of the drugs for a widespread man.
• It may possibly avoid creators from utilizing the patented information.
In USA several organizations are coming forward to bring the emerging biotechnology sector together. In Illinois 1 such organization is the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization. Its aim is to make the state and its surroundings an important life science centre. Every year it also hosts an award ceremony in Springfield, Illinois.
Chicago is an crucial source of funds for this sector. This is due to the fact it is the second largest enterprise district in USA and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Stock exchange, etc is situated here. If your firm has its head quarter in and about Chicago it is very good to have a Chicago Intellectual Property Attorney. This is since the lawyers have large corporations as clients and knows how to deal corporate matters.
