10. Ethical and Social Concerns Arising out of Patents 

Date Source Title Summary Other Categories
05.03.2001 New York Times Brazil's AIDS Chief Denounces Bush Position on Drug Patents The director of Brazil's AIDS program accused the Bush administration today of toughening America's stance toward Brazil's manufacture of generic AIDS drugs and of dragging AIDS policies into trade negotiations. 2. Patent Law, 6. Policies
03.20.2001 Canadian Biotech Advisory Committee Biotechnological Intellectual Property and the Patenting of Higher Life Forms A comprehensive document on the ethics of patenting and biotechnology. The document is available at http://www.cbac-cccb.ca/english/reports/listDocs.aro?type=41 or  http://www.cbac-cccb.ca/documents/Consultation_IP_English.pdf.  19. General Patent and Biotech Information
02.15.2001 Nature Patents in a genetic age A look at the problems of patents in the area of genetics. Its implications on health care, research discussed with reference to international agreements and how the legal system interacts with the patent process. Moreover it discusses the lack of policy in the area of patents and the need for reform. [Some interesting stuff, but Richard writes it better ;)] 3. Theory of Patents, 19. General Patent and Biotechnology Information
12.2000 Nature Biotech Moving the gene patent debate forward [Part II] This article continues to build upon a framework for achieving a meaningful dialogue between industry and civil society in the patent debate, and offers some promising avenues in which both sides can achieve compromise. It stresses the importance of public opinion, and the need to structure dialogue within both a commercial and ethical framework; connecting goals with our ethical values so that we can agree on an acceptable levels of risk; demarcating industry’s role in attaining these goals and ensuring the satisfaction of their commercial concerns; finding means of attaining non-industry goals in biotech; and finally establishing regulatory regimes to protect health and the environment. 3. Theory of Patents, 16. Economics and Biotechnology Patents
12.14.2000 Nature Patent regimes should 'take account of poor' The British government has proposed an international commission on IP rights to consider how they can be designed "to take greater account of the interests of developing countries and poor people". Topics to be addressed by the commission would include access to genetic resources and "traditional knowledge" and on improving TRIPS. 3. Theory of Patents
10.2000 Nature Genetics Genomics in the public domain: strategy and  policy The issue of whether the human genome will be freely available to the public or privately held as a proprietary resource is often framed as a conflict between ethics and greed. This article, however, looks at the debate from the perspective of "strategic considerations" to explain the timing and quality of information disclosures on both sides of the public-private divide. Factors supporting disclosure include: scientific recognition and credibility, widespread dissemination and use, and defeating potential patent claims. Reasons for withholding disclosure include: retaining exclusive access for customers, avoiding disclosure to rivals, and preserving patent rights 32. Genome Project
Globe & Mail Setback for "human-pig" cloning bid The European Patent Office deemed as "contrary to morality" methods described by two firms in a cloning process in which they fused human and pig cells. As a consequence, the applicants did not pursue the application any further. Benefits of the technology are animal-to-human transplants. 30. Xenotransplantation