The Selfish Patent

What is patentable in the United States, according to statute, dates back to the first United States Patent Act of 1790. The provisions of the U.S. patent code contain nothing specific about patenting living organisms; late nineteenth-century developments at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) both allowed and prohibited patents on living organisms. Fast forward a century, and the rapid advancements in biotechnology have led universities and companies conducting biotechnology research and development (R & D) to increasingly depend upon patent protections. Part of this battle has included the fight to expand the boundaries of what can be patented. Indeed, notwithstanding the recent temporary drop due to the economic crisis, the global number of patent applications has been steadily increasing. Based upon provisional date of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 162,900 Patent Cooperation Treaty (“PCT”) international patent applications were filed in 2010. Of that total, it is estimated that 44,855 of those patent applications were filed