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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1999
> March
> March 5, 1999:
Hour Two: Patents and Intellectual Property
| It used to be relatively simple. Someone would invent a better mousetrap or a new method of making widgets, and apply for a patent. If a creation was truly new, the inventor would be assigned a patent - and with it, the rights to exploit the fruits of their labors without competition for a set period of time. Lately, however, technology has been advancing faster than the nation's intellectual property laws, which were mostly written in a time before computer software, genetic engineering, or the human genome project. And that rapid advance has led to some tough questions. |  | If there are hundreds of ways to code the same function in a piece of software, what should be protected - the sequences of code itself, or the function the program carries out? Can researchers looking at fly DNA lay claim to a sequence of genes, and in so doing restrict the use of that sequence in medication for humans? What should be patentable - a chemical's structure, or its function?
On this hour of Science Friday, we'll take a look at patent laws in the U.S., and talk about whether they go far enough -- or go too far -- in protecting intellectual property in science and technology.
Guests:
Todd Dickinson
Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce
Acting Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks
Arlington, VA
Rebecca Eisenberg
Professor of Law
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
Seth Shulman
Author, "Owning the Future" (Houghton Mifflin)
Boston, MA
Books/Articles Discussed:
"Owning the Future" by Seth Shulman. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
Related Links:
Patent and Trademark Search
General Patent info from the Patent and Trademark Office
European Patent Office
IBM Patent Server
Cornell Univ. Overview of Patent Law
This segment produced by:
Annette Heist
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
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