Research handbook on intellectual property and the life sciences

Abstract

Research handbooks aim to give an overview and insight into the current themes for research in a subject area, as conceived by a subset of its current scholars. The typical parameters are: topics regarded as prominent or newsworthy, the network of academic contacts within the editors’ frame of reference, andwhatevermay be regarded as the normative set of principles and ideologies of that group. As far as its biomedical and product-oriented focus permits, this handbook fulfils its role as a snapshot of those topics current in the discussion of intellectual property (IP) and the life sciences, particularly biogenetic research. Eight of the 27 articles have been authored by female scholarswhich,whilewell short of the natural gender distribution, at least demonstrates progress of some kind. The more technical articles provide a good summary of recent changes in legislation, and useful comparisons between the EU and the USA. From an international perspective, Part IV is a concise survey of the status and impact of current IP law in a selection of seven countries: Brazil, China, India, Japan, Kenya, South Africa and Thailand. Functional aspects of the local IP regimes are addressed as well as the key political, social and ethical implications, such as the HIV problem in South Africa. The effect of the TRIPs agreement is not neglected. These articles are hardly exhaustive, or definitive, but provide a cross section and a set of references for those wishing to engage further. A research handbook authored by scholars of the lawmust be expected to approach a subject from a different perspective from that of a group of economists, historians, philosophers, political academics, and scientists. ‘Intellectual property’ as a term gained momentum only in the late twentieth century to help steer the status of ownership of ideas in the direction of the long-standing legal framework around property rights. Yet, perhaps because the concept of property ownership remains at heart a controversial topic, discussion of intellectual property sways back and forth in journals as much as in court. The dynamic, political nature of this discussion is compounded in the case of IP for the life sciences, where the ground constantly shifts and technological advances are likely to raise new points of reference and bury others. It will probably not be long before some of the material in this book, and some of the commentary in this review, is rendered redundant. As this review was being prepared, a paper published in Science (Hirota et al., 2017) describes a significant breakthrough in the editing of embryo DNA by the Francis Crick Institute in London. As we get closer to the point of gene editing, ethical issues are likely to become even more prominent in the legal discussion of life sciences