ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the system became out of step, the effects on the biotechnology industry, and what can be done to improve matters. For a new industry, such as biotechnology, the acquisition of patents can serve many purposes. Biotechnology companies are especially eager to obtain patents of broad scope to help carve out areas of exclusivity for their future development. Historically, the patent system has worked best for industries where developments are the result of empirical discovery, for example, in agricultural chemistry and in the pharmaceutical industries. The emphasis on empiricism leads to difficulties both for biotechnologists in obtaining patents and for courts in interpreting their claims and articulating a rationale to develop a reasonable scope for claims. The process of bringing the paradigms of the law in line with modern scientific thought requires creative thought, debate and a keen sense of policy values.
