Patents on scientific knowledge may not be as useful — or valuable — as many claim them to be....
[T]here is a...danger in trusting strong science patents to promote social development....
Take, for example, the aura that surrounds the 1980s US Bayh–Dole Act, which gave US universities, for the first time, ownership of patents arising from government-funded research.
There is a widely-held belief this helped the US economy's explosive growth in the following two decades, making many universities — and the scientists who work for them — rich in the process. Those with interests in the commercial, rather than the social value of science, actively promote this view.
This conviction, for example, has led South Africa to introduce similar legislation. And it has recently taken hold in India, where the government, urged on by its pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries (and supported by the US Chamber of Commerce), is proposing tightened patent legislation based explicitly on the Bayh–Dole approach, namely making it easier for publicly-funded research to be 'owned' by private entities.
Yet there is very little empirical evidence to show that the Bayh–Dole Act has had the claimed effect in the United States, let alone that it is appropriate for developing countries (see 'Indian patent bill: Let's not be too hasty')....
Conversely, there is widespread anecdotal evidence that the act created a mind-set among many researchers that their knowledge represents a potential goldmine not to be shared with potential competitors (i.e. those working in other universities) — at least until it has been protected by a patent application....
As a group of academics recently stated, the present impetus for similar legislation in developing countries "is fueled by overstated and misleading claims about the economic impact of the Act in the US, which may lead developing countries to expect far more than they are likely to receive" (see 'Is Bayh–Dole good for developing countries? Lessons from the US experience')....
There are alternatives available to developing country governments. For example, they can focus patent legislation on genuine technological inventions, while leaving publicly-funded research openly accessible, and rewarding researchers who come up with socially-valuable inventions through other mechanisms, such as prizes.
More radically, governments could promote 'open innovation', where a wide range of individuals are encouraged to work towards technological breakthroughs. This approach has already been suggested in India, for example, to design new tuberculosis treatments....
Protecting intellectual property will legitimately remain part of such new strategies. But science can only effectively contribute to these if it remains as open as possible. Duplicating the Bayh–Dole approach, and building expectations only of science's commercial value, is not the way to go.
PS: See our past posts on the new tech transfer laws in India and South Africa, inspired by the US Bayh-Dole Act.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/25/2009 01:35:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
