What is Science for Essay - Who Owns Science?
Intellectual Property is not a tangible object that can be physically owned. However, it is an important issue in todays society. Many would feel the ownership of intellectual property is highly justified, whilst others would argue that intellectual property should not be owned. Such a controversial topic clearly needs to be examined carefully. There are 4 types of intellectual property: patents, copyright, trademarks and trade secrets, each with their own flaws and advantages. However, this essay with mainly focus on the ethics of patents.
A patent is a form of intellectual property that can be granted for either a process or a product. It provides the patent holder with exclusive rights to
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The application form is extensive, including descriptions of the invention, claims of the scope of the patent and an abstract. The UK intellectual property office then carry out preliminary examinations to ensure that all parts of the application are correct. This is followed by a substantive examination to test the novelty, inventiveness and industrial applicability of the patent subject. If all of these conditions are satisfied, the patent is then granted. The patent holder then has control over use, manufacture and sale of the product for the following 20 years. If another company breaks the patent, they could be subjected to legal action and have to reimburse the holder of the parent for damages.
There is some controversy over what is patentable material and what isn’t. Gene patents for example are a huge area of discussion. Currently, about 20% of genes are under some form of patent claim. Many question whether human life should be commercialised, arguing that the human genome is a product and therefore property of nature, not any individual or company. Compositions of matter are patent eligible, but products of nature are not. For a product to a be a novel invention, and therefore patentable, the process that distinguishes it from the natural form must be transformative. Gene patents do not claim parts of our chromosomes, but isolated copies of DNA with an equivalent sequence. The processing and modification of the DNA in the
“One-fifth of the genes in your body are privately owned” according to an author Michael Crichton. Can you imagine a corporate company owning your genes in your body? It’s called gene patenting and its real. Michael Crichton and John E. Calfee discuss gene patent. Although the authors agree that medical test are expensive due gene patenting, the authors have different views about nature patenting and medical advancement.
In “Patenting Life,” Michael Crichton argues that the government is mishandling the patenting office with the awarding of patents for human genes. Gene patenting is blocking the advancement of modern medicine and could be costing many patients their lives. The hold on research results in the discovery of fewer cures for modern diseases.
A patent is a legal document giving inventors the property right to their own invention. A patent didn’t always mean the rights to an invention though. A patent used to mean a special privilege or favor. It also could be used to acquire more land or obtain rights to explore a new land. Presently the patent is used only for the rights to your invention. Virginia Alexandrea from The United States Patent and Trademark Office wrote the article “General Information Concerning Patents” where she described what Patent rights include.
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, product or process that provides a new way of doing something, or that offers a new technical solution to a problem. An invention in general must fulfill certain criteria in order to be protected by a patent. For example, the Patents Act, 1970 in S. 2(1) (j) defines invention as a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application. In other words, an invention in order to be patentable must show an element of novelty, must show “an inventive step”, and must be of practical use. Particularly, the Patents Act, 1970 defines “inventive step” as a feature of an invention that involves technical advance as compared to the existing knowledge or having economic significance or both and that makes the invention not obvious to a person skilled in the art. In other words, patent rights are not available for new advances that are merely obvious extensions or modifications of prior designs. Besides, the requirement of difference over prior art, there is a requirement to establish the extent of common general knowledge that exists while
Patents are legal property rights to prevent the entry of rivals. They are generally valid for an average of 20 years and give Tesco the right to prevent competitors from using patented products. Tesco can sell licences to competitors for a stated fee.
Patents are a particular type of institution that is designed to protect an individual’s intellectual property rights. Britain’s patent system was established in 1624 and rose steeply in the mid-1750s which is around the time that the Industrial Revolution commenced (Moykr, 2009, p. 349). The significance that patents exercised during the Industrial Revolution was influenced by the political events that were occurring during this time. The political events increased the importance of intellectual property rights (Mokyr, 2009, p.349). Therefore, during the Industrial Revolution, there was an increase in the desire to protect the inventions or ideas of individuals. However, some inventors have expressed different opinions of the patent system
Today, the patent office routinely approves patents that are broad and vague without demanding more information about the patent. This allows the patent owners to claim ownership of a broad range of topics, leaving little room for new
As the rush to riches continues to gain pace, people's legal right to own private property is protected by a law. However, Intellectual property and
In Article 1 of the Patent Law, it states the right to patent protection for “inventions-creations.” Article 2 defines inventions-creations as inventions, utility models, and designs. These are also defined by rule 2 of the Implementing Regulations:
The “Patent” article from The New Book of Knowledge by Donald W. Banner describes how a patent was created, what it is used for, and how to obtain it. To begin, a patent didn’t always mean the rights to an invention. A patent used to mean a special privilege or favor. It could be to acquire more land or get the rights to explore a new land. Now a days we know patent as the rights to your own invention. The writers of the constitution want to protect inventors, so they decided to write rights in the constitution. “Article I, Section 8, says: "The Congress shall have Power…to promote the progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to…inventors the exclusive Right to their…Discoveries."”(Banner, 1). In 1790 congress passed
The concept of product patent for pharmaceutical products is likely to make life saving medicine beyond the reach of the poor and deprived section of the society around the world.
In the encyclopedia excerpt on the patent it explains what may be patented, obtaining a patent, the nature of patent rights, and foreign patent protection. To begin, this article describes what maybe patented. There are three types of patents utility patents, design patents, and plant patents. Each of these give the inventors ownership of their idea or invention. The utility patent is created for the usefulness of the invention. The utility patent is the most common patent used. A design patent is how the invention looks over how it works. Lastly, the plant patent, which is granted to a developer or discoverer and new variety of plant, reproduced by cuttings, grafting, or other asexual means. All types of patent are governed under title 35 of the United States codes. Under this code it explains that all patents are under the patent statues. Getting approval on a patent does not meant that it is a new invention all the time it could just be an improvement or just a new way of doing something. In addition, obtaining a patent is a long and challenging process. It takes time to apply for a chance to submit an application to the examiners. After the application is approved it is then published into the public. The invention has to be a new or novel invention. Being novel means that it is nonobvious. Furthermore, the patent holder has 17 years to exclude others from making, using, or selling the invention throughout the United States. A patentee can give people some rights to the
Intellectual properties are a necessity in the world of entrepreneurs. Although more than 25 percent of small businesses do not want to expand, a new entrepreneur in the market would likely consider a patent to
For hundreds of years inventors have been able to obtain monopolies through patents for their innovations. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by the government to an inventor for their privately owned innovation with an expiration of 20 years. This gives the patentee the right to legally withhold other human resources from the production, consumption, distribution and vending of their invention. In order to receive a patent, its application must include claims which define the invention as innovative, original and useful or otherwise applicable to industry. Patents were initiated for many reasons including providing property rights for accomplishments of people along with preventing market failure to occur through free riding.
With new innovations and products coming out every day patents become very important, especially in the pharmaceutical department. A patent is a grant by the government permitting the inventor exclusive use of an invention for 20 years. During this period, no one could make use, or even sell the invention without authority. With the India’s patent laws covering a manufacturing method rather than the finished product, this causes problems. A patent provides incentive for pharmaceutical companies to continue to create new and better drugs for, but this may cause conflict with the intellectual property issue.