Varying the Course in Patenting Genetic Material: A Counter-Proposal to Richard Epstein's Steady Course
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Description
Richard Epstein's “Steady the Course: Property Rights in Genetic Material” makes a case for an all-or-nothing approach to patent protection for the fruits of biotechnology research, a case that rejects initiatives that would “tweak” the system to assure the availability of biomedical advances for use in basic research. Epstein believes that we have stumbled into the best of all possible worlds and should instead stay, as his title suggests, on a steady course. Reading his paper makes one wonder why the literature questioning aspects of genomic patenting and proposing the sorts of interventions that he rejects—compulsory licensing, experimental use defenses, condemnation proceedings—is growing so large so fast. I suggest that the disparity between Epstein's claim and what others working in the biotechnology field see arises from a disagreement on four underlying assumptions. I would like to explore these assumptions, which center around the nature of the patentee, the patent, the licensing relationship, and the goals of patent law. I end with a counter-proposal for protecting the public domain of science, which is intended to deal with some of the problems that I believe Epstein to be justified in raising.
Source Publication
Perspectives on Properties of the Human Genome Project
Source Editors/Authors
F. Scott Kieff
Publication Date
2003
Recommended Citation
Dreyfuss, Rochelle C., "Varying the Course in Patenting Genetic Material: A Counter-Proposal to Richard Epstein's Steady Course" (2003). Faculty Chapters. 1195.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1195
