The analytical significance of emergence in the patent system

Expert Report Prepared for the Working Group on Emerging Biotechnologies, Nuffield Bioethics Council. Purpose: 1) to assist the Working Party in understanding the intellectual property system as it applies to emerging biotechnologies and, in particular: a. challenges for the IP system posed by emerging biotechnologies and how the IP system has responded/might respond to these; and b. challenges posed by the IP system for emerging biotechnologies and how the practitioners have responded/might respond to these 2) To provide data and concrete examples to support this analysis 3) To assist the Working Party to draw conclusions about how decisions about IP conditions that influence (limit, facilitate, control, direct, etc.) the emergence of biotechnologies should be framed and advice that should be taken into consideration. The review was carried out by Dr Siva Thambisetty, London School of Economics and Political Science and was informed by work on an EPSRC Discipline Hopping Award on synthetic biology. The review was largely based on secondary research.