Intellectual Property Law

In biotech, the stakes will get even higher...?

It seems that much money can be made by finding organisms in nature (medicinal plants in undiscovered parts of rain forests, for example), and then splicing the genes of a given genetic attribute (of organism A) into organism B (transgenics). Furthermore, although we know the genetic sequence of many organism, we still do not actually know what is the actual biological function of many of the encoded proteins (with potentially patentable attributes). Given that a transgenic organism (one that has desirable transgenic attributes) can be worthy of patent rights, and given that the source of those potentially desirable genes are essentially genomic information, then doesn't it seem that in the future biotech firms will fight over there pieces of sequence information as type of intellectual property? It seems especially likely when one needs (say a competing biotech firm) the genomic information in order to understand the full panorama of proteins (the first step in determining the patenable worthiness/justification and attributes of a genetic sequence). *** Many things that were entrusted to the US Supreme Court only latter to become completely reversed, one small example: Private property rights: The US Supreme Court (Antonin Scalia a few years ago) mandated that those particular house owners sell their property (Waterfront property in New England, at the developer’s price) to that developer…and the justification? To paraphrase Scalia, “the needs of the community as a whole where better met by allowing that property to be developed, and in the process many more individuals found housing, than were met by those house owners being allowed to keep their property”. BTW this is in contrast to the GOVERNMENT taking a citizen’s property for the good of the country (National highway system, for example). Also, in the early 1980’s an American lawyer discovered a loophole in the United Nations charter that agreed that the Earth’s moon cannot be claimed…So with that loop hole, this lawyer claimed the moon and made millions selling plots of moon territory to people. *** Here’s my point, Just because something seems like “common sense” or “sacred” to our sensibilities really means little or nothing to the rich & powerful interest, AND those politically-connected Supreme Court appointees will eventually “interpret” legality to favor “progress” (the rich & powerful). *** Question: Doesn’t it seem inevitable that the Supreme Court will eventually come to the conclusion that organismal genetic information should be treated like intellectual property to be sold to the highest bidder (who would then make the most of the information in a profitable way by returning a product of market value, which is the reason why that firm WAS the highest bidder)??? Before you answer, consider the following: Also, many firms could participate from one organism genetic sequence if the code is parceled out to different firms (like land, for example). And so, by “parceling out” (dividing the genetic sequence into intellectual property segments) many firms can participate in the unraveling of an organisms transgenic value (instead of just one) AND with the incentive that each firm will have patent protection for the transgenic products they do market, within their respective legally allotted sequences.

Public Comments

1. You're too late. Genetic sequences and even genetically engineered organisms (like bacteria) are patentable and have been already for over 25 years.