Reissued Patents and Intervening Rights

Patents and Other Intellectual Property Rights

This article reviews intellectual property rights (IPRs), with some emphasis on the protection of agricultural and life sciences innovations. The main institutional features of IPRs are first discussed, along with a brief historical background and an articulation of the main rationale for the existence of such rights. This is followed by an overview of the principal economic issues related to I...

Rights, patents, markets and the global AIDS pandemic.

How property rights and patents affect antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic resistance tends to increase when a patent on an antibiotic expires. Since other companies can now sell the antibiotic, more of the antibiotic is produced and prices fall. Because the benefits of reducing current production go to other firms, pharmaceutical companies will have little concern about future resistance. This 'open-access' problem causes excessive antibiotic use and resis...

Evaluation of Rights Related to Public Health and Pharmaceutical Patents and Existing Conflicts According to National and International Laws

Today, along with the relative expansion of public health around the world, various diseases such as AIDS, malaria, etc. are increasing in human societies. In this regard, the pharmaceutical industry is one of the most important industries that should be supported so that the inventors of new drugs have enough motivation to produce more effective drugs. On the other hand, the undeniable benefit...

Patents and the Progress of Science: Exclusive Rights and Experimental Use

The patent laws confer exclusive rights in inventions and discoveries in furtherance of a constitutional purpose "To Promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts."' Yet the idea that exclusive rights in new knowledge will promote scientific progress is counterintuitive to many observers of research science, who believe that science advances most rapidly when the community enjoys free access ...