Governance e sapere: public domain e diritti di proprietà intellettuale nella ricerca biomedica

Biomedical research boasts a very solid tradition of open science. However in the last two decades this traditiona has been eroded by intellectual property claims. Such claims encompass fundamental discoveries from which knowledge for future products is drawn. Although patents have been regarded as means to promote the progress of science, recent examples in biomedicine show that this is not always the case. Reiterated granting of patents not only on commercial end products but even on so called research tools may hinder further research, either by creating too many concurrent fragments of intellectual property rights or by increasing the transaction costs of bundling up such rights. These effects are sometimes strengthened by a deliberate policy of allowing applications for patents on the results of publicly funded research. The shortcomings of intellectual property rights can be better understood and dealt with according to the theory of the public domain, which offers a strong case for a new approach to the governance of science and knowledge.;

Emanuela Gambini, Governance e sapere: public domain e diritti di proprietà intellettuale nella ricerca biomedica in "SOCIOLOGIA E POLITICHE SOCIALI" 2/2005, pp , DOI: