Recent trends in US patent grants and issues to be considered

Abstract

AbstractThe life sciences have changed radically since the Convention on Biological Diversity first opened for signatures in 1992. Traditional organism-based approaches to discovery and use of genetic resources have been supplanted by molecular approaches. Biodiversity prospecting is more likely to be a programmatic bioinformatics activity rather than an activity conducted by field scientists. Access to genetic resources is no longer centered on a hunt for novel species. Rather, the hunt is for novel genes and metabolic pathways that can be cloned into well-understood expression systems and readily scaled-up for industrial production. Information about contemporary research, development, and manufacturing practices needs to be addressed, especially when those genes do not need to be associated with their native host at the time of discovery. Information about the research organizations participating in all phases of the discovery and development process also needs to be considered, especially when it involves partnerships between academic and industrial organizations.We present a high-level view of recent trends in the issuance of US patent grants to commercial and non-commercial research organizations, and introduce a technology that is already in place which can be applied to monitoring the use of genetic materials by various stakeholders in an open and transparent manner, as intended under the International Regime for Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS).