Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, 1809 Ashland Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Regen Med. 2011 Nov;6(6 Suppl):79-84. doi: 10.2217/rme.11.68.
According to the World Trade Organization, intellectual property rights are "rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time." The rationale behind intellectual property rights is to offer a quid pro quo, between creators and the public, intended to spur innovation. Inventors gain exclusivity (and an opportunity for profits) in exchange for publicly disclosing details about their creations. The public gains free access to information - information that can then be used to support further innovation. Innovation is seen as an inherent good in this context, as it can lead to the development of things people need (e.g., treatments for disease, green energy technologies or a better mousetrap). Exclusive rights to intellectual property are managed via patents and licenses, with patenting being primarily regulated at the national level. Intellectual property rights are the dominant mechanism used in innovation policy, particularly in science. However, myriad modifications and alternatives to intellectual property rights have been proposed and utilized, including patent pooling, intellectual property exchanges and clearing houses, innovation prizes and open-source licenses. The challenges related to competing models of innovation policy present in a fairly consistent manner across most fields of science. However, this paper will focus exclusively on intellectual property rights and models of innovation policy in the context of stem cell science. It is not that the issues themselves are unique in this context, but rather that there are a series of factors that make a discussion of intellectual property rights and models of innovation policy particularly important in the context of stem cell science.
根据世界贸易组织的定义，知识产权是“赋予人们对其脑力创造的权利。它们通常赋予创作者在一定时间内对其创作的独家使用权。”知识产权背后的基本原理是在创作者和公众之间提供一种交换，旨在激励创新。发明者获得独占权（和盈利机会），以换取公开披露其创作的细节。公众则免费获得信息——这些信息可以用于支持进一步的创新。在这种情况下，创新被视为一种固有利益，因为它可以带来人们所需的东西（例如，疾病治疗、绿色能源技术或更好的捕鼠器）。知识产权的专有权利通过专利和许可证来管理，专利主要在国家层面上进行监管。知识产权是创新政策中使用的主要机制，特别是在科学领域。然而，已经提出并利用了无数种知识产权的修改和替代方案，包括专利池、知识产权交易所和信息交换所、创新奖和开源许可证。与竞争的创新政策模式相关的挑战在大多数科学领域都以相当一致的方式存在。然而，本文将专门讨论知识产权和创新政策模式，特别是在干细胞科学的背景下。并不是说这些问题在这种情况下是独一无二的，而是有一系列因素使得在干细胞科学的背景下讨论知识产权和创新政策模式变得尤为重要。
