1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910162715303321

Autore

Parthasarathy Shobita

Titolo

Patent Politics : Life Forms, Markets, and the Public Interest in the United States and Europe / / Shobita Parthasarathy

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago : , : University of Chicago Press, , [2017]

©2017

ISBN

0-226-43799-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (299 pages)

Disciplina

174.2

Soggetti

Biotechnology

Patent laws and legislation - United States - History

Patent laws and legislation - Europe - History

Bioethics - United States

Bioethics - Europe

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Previously issued in print: 2017.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Defining the Public Interest in the US and European Patent Systems -- 2. Confronting the Questions of Life-Form Patentability -- 3. Commodification, Animal Dignity, and Patent-System Publics -- 4. Forging New Patent Politics Through the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debates -- 5. Human Genes, Plants, and the Distributive Implications of Patents -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix 1: Major Events Related to the US and European Life-Form Patent Controversies -- Appendix 2: Methodological Note -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Over the past thirty years, the world's patent systems have experienced pressure from civil society like never before. From farmers to patient advocates, new voices are arguing that patents impact public health, economic inequality, morality-and democracy. These challenges, to domains that we usually consider technical and legal, may seem surprising. But in Patent Politics, Shobita Parthasarathy argues that patent systems have always been deeply political and social.   To demonstrate this, Parthasarathy takes readers through a particularly



fierce and prolonged set of controversies over patents on life forms linked to important advances in biology and agriculture and potentially life-saving medicines. Comparing battles over patents on animals, human embryonic stem cells, human genes, and plants in the United States and Europe, she shows how political culture, ideology, and history shape patent system politics. Clashes over whose voices and which values matter in the patent system, as well as what counts as knowledge and whose expertise is important, look quite different in these two places. And through these debates, the United States and Europe are developing very different approaches to patent and innovation governance. Not just the first comprehensive look at the controversies swirling around biotechnology patents, Patent Politics is also the first in-depth analysis of the political underpinnings and implications of modern patent systems, and provides a timely analysis of how we can reform these systems around the world to maximize the public interest.