ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book articulates the debates around the central concept of use in order to cast a perspective upon the dynamics and character of intellectual property in the health system. A focus on use, rather than ownership and control, facilitates the various and complex diversity of perspectives on health equity, including perspectives from competition as well as corporate and political behaviour. The private property rights in public knowledge goods, created by intellectual property systems, demonstrate the way in which modern Western-styled democratic principles presuppose the nature of property rights as the basis for freedom and will-formation. Furthermore, use constrains the time-limited legal rights in an invention created by the patent document. The need to increase access to medicines has led to the development of metrics to enable pharmaceutical companies to be tabulated and scored on their achievements.
