September 23, 2008

landmark study reports breakdown in biotech patent systems

Speakers:
Prof Richard Gold, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, McGill University in Montreal

Biotech breakthroughs are transforming the worlds of health and agriculture offering the promise of drought resistant plants, new medicines and energy sources. Yet some feel that the current system of intellectual proerty rights is fundamentally flawed. A Montreal-based international team of experts in biotechnology, law, ethics and economics has released a new report which will be presented to UK policy makers and NGOs next week. Drawing on data collected over the past seven years, the study portrays a crucially important but increasingly dysfunctional industry that relies on a business model based on outdated conceptions of intellectual property. The lead author of the report came to the SMC to prevent its main findings.