Replacing patents with prizes solves AI innovation.
Kavusturan 20 – Elif, Information technology lawyer with more than a decade of work with computer contracts, S.J.D. “REFORMING U.S. PATENT LAW TO ENABLE ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL MEDICINES IN THE ERA OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.”, Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, Vol. 18, No. 1, https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4650&context=wlulr, 11-xx-2020
Increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in research intensifies the existing debates on pharmaceutical patents. Inventions created or enabled by AI raise questions about patentability and patent policy in general. Faster and more efficient R&D weakens justifications for pharmaceutical patents.
While continued incentivization is essential, lawmakers must consider alternative systems, which prioritize access alongside incentivization in order to advance health care as a human right. One way to increase access while maintaining the necessary incentives for innovation is to reform standards of patentability, leaving some essential medicines enabled by AI outside the sphere of patent protection, and fund R&D through prize funds and tax incentives in the absence of patents. Alternatively, a shorter exclusivity term, followed by a licensing period allowing competitors to make and sell the related medicines against a licensing fee, will enable competing products to enter the market earlier and drive prices down and provide innovating companies a method to recoup investments.