Intellectual Property Rights and Biotechnology: How to improve the present patent system

Ignazio Musu

No 2006_01, Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari"

Abstract: The paper discusses two types of problems related to assigning or denying intellectual property rights to agro-biotechnological innovations in the relation between developed and developing countries. First, protecting property rights on innovations creates incentives towards further research and innovation, which in some cases may be beneficial to society, in others not so. If the assigning of the right does not guarantee the potential beneficial use of the innovation, not assigning rights would not prevent its potentially dangerous utilization. Secondly, the power of exclusion of the holder of an intellectual property right limits access to the newly produced knowledge: this may discourage the process of producing new knowledge, harming developing countries. Moreover the property right holder may end up with excessive market power when commercializing the innovation, which is also harmful to developing countries. It is shown that these problems cannot be solved by denying protection to property rights on innovations, but by improving procedures for awarding these rights and accompanying them with appropriate liability rules and antitrust measures.

Keywords: Intellectual property rights; Biotechnology; Patent system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O30 O33 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2006, Revised 2006
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Intellectual Property Rights and Biotechnology: How to Improve the Present Patent System (2005)
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