INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property Rights

This paper based on intellectual property rights. There are two major events related to the subject covered in this paper.

Modern thought tends to treat property as the set of relations that exist among people with respect to tangible artifacts, or even intangible artifacts, such as bank accounts or shares of stock, that are rivalrous in consumption (that is, what one person consumes of the artifact is not available for others). That set of relations gives to the property owner the right to determine use of the property, the exclusive right to sell or donate the property, and most important, the exclusive right to exclude use of the property by others (Hoedemaekers, 2006). Until alienation, these exclusive rights with respect to ordinary property are perpetual. Following the theories of John Locke (1632-1704), most people treat these perpetual exclusive rights as arising by creation of the artifact out of materials acquired from a commons (leaving enough for others).

Intellectual Property Rights for Human Genetic Material

There are also ethical controversies about issuing patents on human DNA. Critics of such patents assert that a substance such as DNA, which occurs in nature, does not satisfy the legal requirement that a patent claim be novel. Proponents of gene patents point out that patents are granted for genes or gene sequences that have been isolated or purified, so the material is not in its naturally occurring state. Other biotechnology patents cover novel techniques devised by the inventor to manipulate genetic material or the discovery of a practical use for a human gene (Hoedemaekers, 2006). Thus, those who defend patents involving human genetic material insist that these patents are appropriate rewards for human ingenuity, not a government grant of control over naturally occurring human genes (Calluzzo, 2007).

Some scientists are concerned that patents on ...