patentingpeople.com

patentingpeople.com covers the conference tomorrow at Cardoza law school of issues in the patenting of life. Here's a short excerpt from their introduction to the subject of the conference. I'll be talking about the patenting of stem cells, in case you need a nap.

When, if ever, should we grant patent rights – government-guaranteed exclusivity to technology – to inventions “encompassing” a human organism or – more broadly – aspects of humanity? If patents create an incentive for innovation, do we want to “incentivize” this kind of research? What happens when a chimeric animal – patented and, therefore, owned by someone – turns out to be too human? Or, if these kinds of technological advances are inevitable, is the disclosure system of patent law better than having cloning technology veiled in secrecy?