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Arguments Against Gene Patents

By Posted by Alan Wexelblat

A couple weeks ago I posted that I was undecided on the question of gene patents. A recent commenter took me to task on the issue and reminded me that I'd meant to read more on this. I have a query in to my local library to see if they have a copy of Genetics in Medicine, which recently did an issue on the topic.

In addition, Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Prize-winner in economics) and John Sulston (science ethicist) have a stongly worded editorial piece in the April 16th Wall St Journal opposing gene patents. Both of them were supporters in the recent case in which the patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes were invalidated. A key component of their argument is that the patent here does not serve basic economic interests; rather, the monopoly power of the patent actually hinders both competitive development and the additional research that is necessary to understand more fully the roles that these genes play.

In effect, the argument goes, the patents form a roadblock that impedes both useful commerce and necessary research. This argument runs in parallel to their more fundamental argument that genes - as naturally occurring sequences - are not patentable inventions. Given the disastrous state of current law and practice on what is and is not patentable, I think it's wise to make both arguments since any attempt to apply what would seem to be common-sense logic to our current patenting practices seems guaranteed to produce only stress and gray hair.

As to my own point of view, I think Stiglitz's economic arguments are important and moderately persuasive. I have not read the extensive evidence submitted in the case but I'm willing to believe that the plaintiffs made a convincing economic case, which undercuts the "patents are a necessary incentive" argument I've believed in the past.

Full post as published by Copyfight - The Politics of IP on April 22, 2010 (boomark / email).