Patents don’t drive biotech innovation – other incentive systems are in place
Stephanie Huang, 2023 - J.D. Candidate, 2024, Fordham University School of Law “Silly Gene Patent is Not My Lover: A Retrospective Analysis of Myriad,” 34 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 160 (). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/iplj/vol34/iss1/4 //DH
The Advisory Committee for Genetics Health and Society has also concluded that patent rights are “neither necessary nor sufficient conditions” for the development of genetic tests.170 Moreover, most empirical research shows that there is “little to no inhibitory effect” of DNA patents on later scientific research efforts.171 Further still, patents are not the only incentive system in place. For academic science, where substantial amounts of genetic discoveries are made, “public funding, professional rewards, and scientific norms of discovery already provide robust incentives for invention, thus undermining the justification for exclusive rights.”172 Thus, the Myriad holding that genes are patent-ineligible subject matter should not impede gene discovery efforts or development of genetic tests because patents were not a major driving force in the field to start.