Department of Philosophy and Moral Science, Universiteit Gent, Blandijnberg 2, 9000, Gent, Belgium.
Sci Eng Ethics. 2011 Mar;17(1):45-64. doi: 10.1007/s11948-009-9168-8. Epub 2009 Sep 19.
Since the 1980s in the US and the 1990s in Europe, patenting and licensing activities by universities have massively increased. This is strongly encouraged by governments throughout the Western world. Many regard academic patenting as essential to achieve 'knowledge transfer' from academia to industry. This trend has far-reaching consequences for access to the fruits of academic research and so the question arises whether the current policies are indeed promoting innovation or whether they are instead a symptom of a pro-intellectual property (IP) culture which is blind to adverse effects. Addressing this question requires both empirical analysis (how real is the link between academic patenting and licensing and 'development' of academic research by industry?) and normative assessment (which justifications are given for the current policies and to what extent do they threaten important academic values?). After illustrating the major rise of academic patenting and licensing in the US and Europe and commenting on the increasing trend of 'upstream' patenting and the focus on exclusive as opposed to non-exclusive licences, this paper will discuss five negative effects of these trends. Subsequently, the question as to why policymakers seem to ignore these adverse effects will be addressed. Finally, a number of proposals for improving university policies will be made.
自 20 世纪 80 年代在美国和 90 年代在欧洲，大学的专利申请和授权活动大大增加。这在整个西方世界得到了政府的大力鼓励。许多人认为学术专利对于实现“知识从学术界向产业界转移”至关重要。这一趋势对获取学术研究成果产生了深远的影响，因此，人们不禁要问，现行政策是否真的促进了创新，还是仅仅是一种忽视负面影响的知识产权（IP）文化的表现。要回答这个问题，需要进行实证分析（学术专利申请和授权与产业界对学术研究的“发展”之间的联系有多真实？）和规范评估（现行政策的依据是什么，以及它们在多大程度上威胁到重要的学术价值观？）。本文在阐述了美国和欧洲学术专利申请和授权的大幅增长，并对“上游”专利申请的增加趋势以及对专有而非非专有许可的关注进行了评论之后，将讨论这些趋势的五个负面影响。随后，将探讨政策制定者似乎忽视这些不利影响的原因。最后，将提出一些改进大学政策的建议。
