Introduction -- Defining the public interest in the US and European patent systems -- Confronting the questions of life-form patentability -- Commodification, animal dignity, and patent-system publics -- Forging new patent politics through the human embryonic stem cell debates -- Human genes, plants, and the distributive implications of patents -- Conclusion
This Guide aims to assist users in searching for technology information using patent documents, a rich source of technical, legal and business information presented in a generally standardized format and often not reproduced anywhere else. Though the Guide focuses on patent information, many of the search techniques described here can also be applied in searching other non-patent sources of technology information.
The U.S. patent system is in an accelerating race with human ingenuity and investments in innovation. In many respects the system has responded with admirable flexibility, but the strain of continual technological change and the greater importance ascribed to patents in a knowledge economy are exposing weaknesses including questionable patent quality, rising transaction costs, impediments to the dissemination of information through patents, and international inconsistencies. A panel including a mix of legal expertise, economists, technologists, and university and corporate officials recommends significant changes in the way the patent system operates. A Patent System for the 21st Century urges creation of a mechanism for post-grant challenges to newly issued patents, reinvigoration of the non-obviousness standard to quality for a patent, strengthening of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, simplified and less costly litigation, harmonization of the U.S., European, and Japanese examination process, and protection of some research from patent infringement liability.
This brochure explains how the IPC Green Inventory can give direct access to the latest patent information about technologies in a number of fields including alternative energy production, energy conservation, transportation, waste management, and agriculture and forestry
The first report in a new flagship series, WIPO Technology Trends, aims to shed light on the trends in innovation in artificial intelligence since the field first developed in the 1950s.
In an era when knowledge can travel with astonishing speed, the need for analysis of intellectual property (IP) law—and its focus on patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and issues of copyright—has never been greater. But as Robert M. Farley and Davida H. Isaacs stress in Patents for Power, we have long overlooked critical ties between IP law and one area of worldwide concern: military technology. This deft blend of case studies, theoretical analyses, and policy advice reveals the fundamental role of IP law in shaping how states create and transmit defense equipment and weaponry. The book probes two major issues: the effect of IP law on innovation itself and the effect of IP law on the international diffusion, or sharing, of technology. Discussing a range of inventions, from the AK-47 rifle to the B-29 Superfortress bomber to the MQ-1 Predator drone, the authors show how IP systems (or their lack) have impacted domestic and international relations across a number of countries, including the United States, Russia, China, and South Korea. The study finds, among other results, that while the open nature of the IP system may encourage industrial espionage like cyberwarfare, increased state uptake of IP law is helping to establish international standards for IP protection. This clear-eyed approach to law and national security is thus essential for anyone interested in history, political science, and legal studies.
Patents as an Incentive for Innovation Edited by Rafal Sikorski & Zaneta Zemla-Pacud Patents are a reward for human inventiveness. A well-functioning patent system must provide incentives for innovation, safeguard dynamic competition and protect the public interest – a balancing act fraught with difficulty in the ‘connected’ global world. This ground-breaking book is the first to deeply analyse how patent law today performs its function of stimulating innovation in the crucial sectors of healthcare, agriculture, artificial intelligence and communications technology. Patent specialists, practitioners and scholars from various jurisdictions thoroughly describe how patent rights can be deployed to incentivize investments in researching and developing socially critical innovations without sacrificing the public’s interest in sharing the benefits that are produced. Among the emerging issues of patent rights investigated are the following: protectability and morality of according private rights over material derived from the human body; licensing on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms; the supplementary protection certificate (SPC) manufacturing waiver; patent eligibility of artificial intelligence-related inventions; excessive enforcement of patents by patent assertion entities; enforcement of second medical use innovations; the so-called farmer’s privilege, the farm-save seed exemption, and breeders’ rights; international trade regulations and their influence on patent systems; human enhancement technologies and the consequences of patenting them; specifics of patent protection for biologic medicines; challenges posed by artificial intelligence for the disclosure requirement in patent law; and standard essential patent licensing, particularly in the context of the 5G standard. Perspectives taken into consideration by the authors include protectability criteria, length and scope of the granted protection, mechanisms for dealing with the friction between generalized application and specialized concerns, and rights enforcement. These aspects are analysed on the domestic, international and global levels. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need to strike the right balance between innovation and access in healthcare and other technologies, a need rooted in patent law. Because the problems discussed – and solutions offered – in this collection of expert essays are of tremendous practical and cultural significance, the book will be of immeasurable value to practitioners, policymakers and researchers in patent law and other fields of intellectual property law.
In recent years, business leaders, policymakers, and inventors have complained to the media and to Congress that today's patent system stifles innovation instead of fostering it. But like the infamous patent on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, much of the cited evidence about the patent system is pure anecdote--making realistic policy formation difficult. Is the patent system fundamentally broken, or can it be fixed with a few modest reforms? Moving beyond rhetoric, Patent Failure provides the first authoritative and comprehensive look at the economic performance of patents in forty years. James Bessen and Michael Meurer ask whether patents work well as property rights, and, if not, what institutional and legal reforms are necessary to make the patent system more effective. Patent Failure presents a wide range of empirical evidence from history, law, and economics. The book's findings are stark and conclusive. While patents do provide incentives to invest in research, development, and commercialization, for most businesses today, patents fail to provide predictable property rights. Instead, they produce costly disputes and excessive litigation that outweigh positive incentives. Only in some sectors, such as the pharmaceutical industry, do patents act as advertised, with their benefits outweighing the related costs. By showing how the patent system has fallen short in providing predictable legal boundaries, Patent Failure serves as a call for change in institutions and laws. There are no simple solutions, but Bessen and Meurer's reform proposals need to be heard. The health and competitiveness of the nation's economy depend on it.
