Patenting Lives Life Patents, Culture and Development

Patenting Lives includes contributions from various interests and perspectives, both in the context of current international developments in life patents and the global agenda of harmonization of international intellectual property. The book is divided into five sections reflecting the critical issues arising from patents and biotechnology - Context; Human Rights and Ethical Frameworks; Medicine and Public Health; Traditional Knowledge; and Agriculture. The international contributors from government, civil society, academia and the private sector provide diverse perspectives on life patents and the facilitation of social, cultural and economic development in the context of international principles of trade.

Introduction, Johanna Gibson; Part 1 Context; Chapter 1 The Legal Framework Surrounding Patents for Living Materials, Tony Howard; Part 2 Human Rights and Ethical Frameworks; Chapter 2 Life as Chemistry or Life asThe Right to Development, African Countries and the Patenting of Living Organisms, Adejoke Oyewunmi; Part 3 Medicine and Public Health; Chapter 4 The Genetic Sequence Right, Luigi Palombi; Chapter 5 Forfeited Consent, Angela A. Stanton; Part 4 Traditional Knowledge; Chapter 6 Beyond ‘Protection’, Daniel Robinson; Chapter 7 Plant Genetic Resources and the Associated Traditional Knowledge, Chika B. Onwuekwe; Part 5 Agriculture; Chapter 8 Analysis of Farmers’ Willingness to Pay for Agrobiodiversity Conservation in Nepal, Diwakar Poudel, Fred H. Johnsen; Chapter 9 Is More Less?, Dwijen Rangnekar;

Johanna Gibson researches and teaches intellectual property law at the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, within the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, University of London. Her research is primarily concerned with intellectual property and development, traditional knowledge, community governance, and cultural diversity. She has written widely on the social and cultural aspects of creativity and economies in knowledge and creative products, and has acted as a consultant to the UK and European Patent Offices on intellectual property law and policy. She continues to work on the politics of intellectual property and development.