Review of the International Patent System: From the Venice Statute to Free Trade Agreements

The current international patent system emerged within certain economic, political and social conditions in specific territories and periods. It has its historical roots in the Statute of Venice (1474), the Statute of Monopolies (1624), the United States Patent Law (1790), the French Patent Law (1791) and the Paris Convention (1883). Over time, these laws shaped a new model, which currently prevails. To strengthen the analysis of this article, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (1994), as well as free trade twentieth century agreements are integrated into the discussion. It is worth noting that each amendment stressed the economic relevance of the patent and its use to benefit certain economic elites through the creation of monopolies. Consequently, the debate on the purposes and nature of the international patent system has also been constant from its emergence to the present. This article provides basic elements for reflection about the origin, purposes and scope of national patent models implemented in Latin America within the global trend of scientific-technological innovation for development.

As complexas imbricações entre patentes de fármacos e doenças negligenciadas: limites e possibilidades na perspectva da saúde global

Podría decirse que la ciencia y la tecnología han demostrado ser grandes aliados para mantener la salud, a través de la producción de medicamentos y vacunas para garantizar la ausencia de enfermedades. Por lo tanto, es necesario investigar las posibles implicaciones entre el actual sistema internacional de patentes y el crecimiento exponencial de las enfermedades olvidadas, en vista de las perspectivas de la salud mundial. Para cumplir el objetivo propuesto, se utilizaron la teoría de la teoría sistémica y el método de enfoque deductivo. Este artículo ha sido estructurado en dos capítulos. El primero abordará los instrumentos contextuales de la salud global y la imbricación de enfermedades olvidadas. El segundo tratará con el sistema de patentes como un potencial para las enfermedades de negligencia. Sin embargo, se concluye que muchas enfermedades están más allá del interés de las industrias, ya que no representan una perspectiva lucrativa. Indiscutivelmente, a ciência e a tecnologia têm se mostrado grandes aliadas da manutenção da saúde, isso por meio da produção de medicamentos e vacinas a fim de garantir a ausência de doenças. Para tanto, cumpre investigar as possíveis imbricações entre o atual sistema internacional de patentes e o crescimento exponencial das doenças negligenciadas, diante das perspectivas da saúde global. Visando cumprir o objetivo proposto utilizou-se a Teoria de Base Sistêmica e o método de abordagem dedutivo. Estruturou-se o presente artigo em dois capítulos. O primeiro abordará os instrumentos contextuais de saúde global e a imbricação das doenças negligencias. O segundo versará sobre o sistema de patentes como um potencializador das doenças negligencias. Contudo, conclui-se que muitas doenças estão à margem do interesse das indústrias, pois não representam uma perspectiva lucrativa. Arguably, science and technology have proven to be great allies of maintaining health, through the production of medicines and vaccines to ensure the absence of disease. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the possible implications between the current international patent system and the exponential growth of neglected diseases, in view of the perspectives of global health. In order to fulfill the proposed objective, the Systemic Theory Theory and the deductive approach method were used. This article has been structured into two chapters. The first will address the contextual instruments of global health and the imbrication of neglected diseases. The second will deal with the patent system as a potential for neglect diseases. However, it is concluded that many diseases are beyond the interest of industries as they do not represent a lucrative prospect.

Synthetic Biology - Mapping the Patent Landscape

This article presents the global patent landscape for synthetic biology as a new and emerging area of science and technology. The aim of the article is to provide an overview of the emergence of synthetic biology in the patent system and to contribute to future research by providing a high quality tagged core dataset with 7,424 first filings and 71,887 family members. This dataset is intended to assist with evidence based exploration of synthetic biology in the patent system and with advancing methods for the analysis of new and emerging areas of science and technology.The starting point for the research is recognition that traditional methods of patent landscape analysis based on key word searches face limitations when addressing new and emerging areas of science and technology. Synthetic biology can be broadly described as involving the design, synthesis and assembly of biological parts, circuits, pathways, cells and genomes. As such synthetic biology can be understood as emerging from a combination of overlaps and convergences between existing fields and disciplines, such as biotechnology, genetic engineering, protein engineering and systems biology. More precisely, synthetic biology can be understood as the synthetic phase of molecular biology and genetic engineering. This presents the problem that key word strategies may radically overestimate activity because they involve terms that are widely used in underlying fields that are contributing to synthetic biology.In response to this problem we combined anthropology, scientometrics and data science to map authors from scientific publications on synthetic biology into the international patent system. We mapped 10,816 authors into the international patent system and identified 2,450 authors of articles on synthetic biology who are also inventors in the period to December 2017. By combining this data with citation information and a baseline keyword strategy we are able to describe the global patent landscape for synthetic biology and the wider patent universe in which synthetic biology is situated.This article describes the main features of the global landscape and provides the tagged dataset as a contribution to evidence based debate on intellectual property and synthetic biology and methodological development. We anticipate that the data will prove useful in informing international policy debates on synthetic biology under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Patent law and bioprospecting in Antarctica

ABSTRACTThe number of patents and patent applications related to inventions based on biological material from the Antarctic is increasing. Bioprospecting in the Antarctic is happening with no explicit regulation of property rights or benefit sharing requirements. This leaves patent law as the only legal system to establish exclusive rights to genes, bacteria, and other biological material found in the Antarctic. Patent law is general in form and is applied to all areas of invention with very few adaptations to single fields of innovation. Therefore, it is interesting to identify the issues in patent law in cases in which the biological material from the Antarctic is likely to create challenges or loopholes. The aim of this article is to couple the understanding of this particular legal regime and of biological circumstances in the Antarctic with knowledge of the international patent system for the purpose of contributing to the work of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCMs) regarding bioprospecting in the Antarctic.