Intellectual Property and Biotechnology, A Training Handbook
by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
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Biotechnology in one form or another has been part of human development since the dawn of agriculture. Human ingenuity has led to increased production and greater diversity and quality of livestock and varieties of crops. Today’s food crops and domestic animals embody the benefits of many generations of selection and breeding.
Biotechnology continues to offer considerable potential for enhancing human health and well-being. Modern biotechnology, including gene technology, is finding increasing application in healthcare and in a host of industrial and agricultural industries. Effectively applied, modern biotechnology may contribute to economic growth, technological development and human welfare. Yet it has also raised concerns about ethical and moral issues, equitable sharing of the benefits of biotechnology, environmental impact, the accelerated pace of change and the regulatory challenges. Intellectual property (IP) rights are not new in the biotechnology domain, but some of the concerns about modern biotechnology have focussed on the nature, impact and legitimacy of IP rights as they are applied to gene technology and to inventions that draw on genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.
Just as the impact of modern biotechnology is beginning to be felt, there is increasing recognition of the importance of a balanced IP system in assuring economic development. Many countries are currently building IP issues into their economic, industrial and technological planning, and into research and education programs. This leads to a debate about balancing public and private interests - on the one hand, providing sufficient incentives for the investments required to bring new technologies to the public, and on the other ensuring that there is sufficient flexibility and capacity for ensuring that the benefits of new technologies are widely available on equitable terms. In relation to biotechnology, there are also concerns that IP rights do not encompass material in the public domain or that has been somehow misappropriated. The important debate on how best to achieve this balance is continuing at national and internationa l levels: this handbook does not seek to advance any particular point in this policy discussion, and focusses instead on describing the current system with reference to general international standards.
There is no doubt that reaping the social benefits and potential value of IP, however the overall balance of interests is struck, does require a practical understanding of how the IP system operates and how IP rights can be used and managed most effectively. This handbook concentrates on this area of awareness and expertise, in the hope that it will assist in the more effective use of the IP system to achieve the positive outcomes that are hoped for. It aims to encourage a view of the IP system as more than an inert collection of legal documents, so that it becomes a toolkit for development of and access to technologies, and a means of ensuring their beneficial application. Not all researchers need to become patent experts, but many are under pressure to make better use of the IP system to assist in ensuring that their research outcomes can be effectively disseminated and used, and often to ensure improved funding for future research programs. This handbook is intended to make a modest contribution to fulfilling these needs.
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