Patent Pooling and Access to Knowledge: A case study of biotechnology with reference to India
Abstract
The concern for adequate access to patented knowledge is as old as the history of modern intellectual property rights. The public good nature of intellectual property has always been cited as the reason for providing legal protection to creator of knowledge. Intellectual property is characterised by what economists call rival nature meaning that once knowledge has been created other cannot be excluded from its use. Thus cost of recreation of knowledge is zero. This means marginal cost of creating knowledge is also zero. In a competitive market price is equal to marginal cost and hence market-determined price of knowledge creation would also be zero. In such a situation there would not be enough incentive for creation of knowledge or innovation. Hence the system of legal protection intellectual property rights evolved to make knowledge an excludable product...
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Appendix included
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The table of contents for this item can be shared with the requester. The requester may then choose one chapter, up to 10% of the item, as per the Fair Dealing provision of the Canadian Copyright Act
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IDRC Final Report
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Keywords
PATENT POOLS, ACCESS TO INFORMATION, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INDIA