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Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law

 

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Thursday, 30 January 2020 - 5.00pm
Location: 
Faculty of Law, B16

Speaker: Dr Naomi Hawkins, University of Exeter 

Title: "Patents in Genomic Medicine: Awareness, Engagement and Compliance"

Abstract: Intellectual property rights are key to the translation of discoveries into clinical use in genomic medicine. This presentation will explore the interaction of intellectual property rights, specifically patents, with the field of genomic personalised medicine, through empirical work investigating the role that patents play in the development and delivery of non-invasive prenatal testing. Single gene testing and non-invasive prenatal testing represent examples of two different types of innovation likely to be important in personalised medicine, and which operate differently in terms of how the law is applied in practice. In single gene testing, on the one hand, previous studies demonstrate that patents have little impact on practice for those developing genetic tests in the public sector in the UK, because they are largely ignored. In contrast however, recent empirical work finds that law and law-in-practice in non-invasive prenatal testing are much more convergent than found in single gene testing. Those involved in the development and delivery of non-invasive prenatal testing are more aware of patents, and balance the costs and benefits of greater engagement or compliance with patent law, in relation to factors such as freedom to operate, litigation and licensing, in favour of compliance. Compliance can take different forms; licensing is compliance, as is forbearance from using a patented invention in the absence of a patent licence.

This presentation explores the factors relevant to patent law compliance in non-invasive prenatal testing, and further considers the implications for the field of personalised medicine. It argues that as the prevalent means to promote openness, access and affordability in biomedicine are founded on the existing legal structures of intellectual property rights, such solutions will only be effective and adopted when these existing legal structures of intellectual property law are recognised and respected in the relevant field. It is therefore essential that such solutions only be deployed with a nuanced understanding of the operation of the law-in-practice. 

Enquiries to: cipil@law.cam.ac.uk

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