Finding the Path Issues of Access to Research Resources (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Chapter 2: Patents
Chapter 2: Patents
Pages 12-18
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From page 12... ...
Nonetheless, patenting can slow or stop access to some innovations, particularly basic discoveries and inventions that are of value to researchers on the leading edges of their fields, so scientists are especially sensitive to patent policy regarding this sort of fundamental work. Perhaps the best example is a debate that has been roiling the molecular biology research community for some 7 years.
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From page 13... ...
can be found on average every few hundred nucleotides across the entire human genome (of a few billion nucleotides) so there are literally millions of SNPs that can collectively distinguish each of the 42 human chromosomes carried by different individuals.
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From page 14... ...
It is a broad patent that claims rights to any gene that contains the EST, even though the gene is not yet known. Venter argued that the patent is probably not worth the paper it is printed on, because "the patent had very low accuracy data and lousy informatics and claimed things that don't really relate to the sequence." Holtzman countered, "It might be not worth the paper it's written on, but it will cost you several hundred thousand dollars to litigate.
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From page 15... ...
Celera is planning to sequence five human genomes, Holtzman noted. "By definition, they will have 80% of the SNPs with a 20% prevalence in the population.
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From page 16... ...
And the NIH National Center for Human Genome Research encourages the researchers who receive its grants to deposit their DNA sequences into a public database as quickly as possible and not to seek patents on the sequence information itself. That does not mean, however, that discoveries made about the meaning and usefulness of raw genetic data would not be patentable.
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From page 17... ...
In discussing patents, he said, many people forget that the patent system makes possible commercial development of many of the research resources that scientists depend on. "If you look at science in this country versus in, for example, the former Soviet Union, the biggest difference is that we have tremendous industry support for what we're doing" and this industry support is available because the patent system guarantees that companies can profit from developing such things as restriction enzymes and other tools that researchers use, as well as drugs and other products.
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From page 18... ...
Four million dollars is pretty modest when you think about the impact that this technology has on things and how much it cost to invent it in the first place." The same argument applies to a number of research tools, Snyder said. "If you think of the nature of science now, a lot of these technologies are coming out of big laboratories or big centers, which devise expensive technologies that individual investigators can't afford." To make the most of these technologies, "we'll need groups of people to have access, and I suggest that minicenters would be wonderful avenues for dispersing useful information and technology."
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