Morality as a legal term: Intralegal transplants

Joanna Wisniowska

Chapter 5 in Morality in the Unitary Patent System, 2026, pp 116-151 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: After revealing practical obstacles to viewing morality in patent law through the foreign, i.e., non-legal, lenses shaped by philosophical insights, Chapter 5 proposes to renounce such foreign connotations in interpreting the clause. Instead, morality is being awarded the status of a legal term, which constitutes the bedrock of the forthcoming method of interpretation. While preparing for its detailed design, Chapter 5 attempts to learn from other legal disciplines which similarly employ moral and policy considerations as a counterbalance for recognised private rights and prerogatives. To achieve this, the conducted comparative analysis draws from experiences of property, contract, copyright, and trade mark law, all familiar with the equivalent of the morality exception in written or unwritten form. They deliver useful lessons incorporated into patent law through the method of intralegal transplants, helping to determine the final shape of the bespoke theory designed for patent law.

Keywords: Legal nature; Obscenity doctrine; Structured discretion; Accepted principles of morality; Boni mores; Biomaterials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035365395
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