Sui generis solves biotech patenting needs better than the aff

Post Diamond v Chakraborthy, science has developed so much that the demand for enhancing the scope of patent protection has been increasing year after year. The most recent demand from the biotech labs is for giving protection to isolated genes, under patent law in respective jurisdiction. The paper mainly aims to answer the question that “whether the patentability criteria, as the jurisprudence regarding it exists today, are enough to evaluate the standard of patentability of isolated genes or not”. The authors have examined the laws of various jurisdictions in this regard and have analysed the ‘invention’ of isolated gene with respect to the tests of patentability, to determine if it fails or sustains the same. Arguments based on ethical considerations, which opposes the granting of patent protection to isolated genes, have been put forth for testing of validity. The requirement of enabling disclosure has also been tested, which is must to be filled with the application for the grant of the patent. The research leads to the finding that the present law is insufficient for extending the protection of patent to isolated genes, and thus a dire need of a sui generis protection is increasing.

Biotech is best protected via sui generis – semiconductors prove

Rose 12 [Simone A., Professor of Law, Wake Forest University, writes and publishes in the area of intellectual property (IP), “Semiconductor Chips, Genes, and Stem Cells: New Wine for New Bottles?,” American Journal of Law & Medicine, 38 (2012): 113-157, pg. Cambridge Journals Digital Archive, ALB]

This Article analogizes early semiconductor technology and its surrounding economics with isolated genes, stem cells, and related bioproducts, and their surrounding economics, to make the case for sui generis (of its own class) intellectual property protection for isolated bioproducts. Just as early semiconductors failed to meet the patent social bargain requiring novelty and nonobviousness in the 1980s, isolated genes and stem cells currently fail to meet the patent bargain requirements of non-obviousness and eligible subject matter that entitle them to traditional intellectual property protection. Like early semiconductor chip designs, nevertheless, the high cost of upstream bioproduct research and development, coupled with the need to sustain continued economic growth of the biotechnology industry, mandates that Congress provide some level of exclusive rights to ensure continued funding for this research. Sui generis intellectual property protection for isolated bioproducts would preserve the incentive to continue innovation in the field. As illustrated by the semiconductor industry, however, such sui generis protection for this technology must include limitations that address the need to provide an appropriate level of public access to facilitate downstream product development and enrich the public domain.