THE stampede to file patents on biotech inventions is bringing the patent
system to its knees and may even create a new digital divide between rich and
poor countries.
Governments around the world are still debating whether to grant patents on
inventions such as animals genetically modified to produce drugs in their milk
or the sequence of a human gene linked to disease. But inventors themselves are
filing so many patents, and the applications are so long, that patent examiners
are buckling under the strain. Patent offices are legally obliged to publish
applications and libraries must display them.
Most patents…
