Legal and Policy Implications of Allowing Patents on Genes

Abstract

This paper would deal with the issue of 'gene patents' by tracing its origins through U.S. case laws and the contemporary place it occupies in the legal theory. Further the paper would draw policy implications of patenting gene sequences from a third world country perspective, especially for India. The first section would trace various important judicial pronouncements in the U.S. and Europe dealing with the patenting of biotechnological innovations up to the watershed case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty. This section would find that a constant expansion in the patentability criteria of law took place in the field of biotechnological innovations to make the law more and more inclusive in its scope. Next section would theorize around the nature and unique characteristics of 'gene sequences' as biotechnological innovations and discuss various episodes of attempts to patent 'gene sequences'. Through a multi-pronged analysis consisting of the established principles of patent law to the ethical dimension it invokes, this section would further study arguments advanced by the advocates of gene patents in various forums. Third section would raise some policy concerns that have been increasingly voiced by several medical practitioners and independent biochemical researchers, who have warned that gene patents would freeze all bio-medical innovations. The last section would argue that implementing gene patents is a bad legal policy choice and highly undesirable for a developing country like India.