The biotechnology industry’s shifting ideology and the increasingly proprietary nature of research tools are hampering research efforts. Access to key data and research tools to deal with new scientific initiatives like plant biotechnology has become limited. Hence, there is a need for reforms to the current patent system to deal effectively with these problems. This is the gist of an article by David Faye of Canada’s Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.

Faye noted that the proliferation of patent rights can impede or effectively preclude use of the research tools. As such, Faye reported that some studies have shown that researchers are forced to circumvent the patent system, with one-third of private and public firms indicating that they use patented research tools without a license.

Faye proposes a renewed focus on the experimental use exception in patent law in the United States and the United Kingdom as a possible means to solve the problem. “If resent trends to narrow policy initiatives can be reversed or, at the very least, halted, the potential may exist for public policy initiatives to permit use of the exception in a manner which would ultimately benefit the intended sectors,” Faye said.

See the article entitled “Exploitation of research tools in plant biotechnology: Access through application of the experimental use exception (Part 1)”: http://pharmalicensing.com/features/disp/1107861077_42089e55c060d