A patent is a social contract between society and an inventor, originally developed by the Venetians to promote trade and commerce and avoid the accumulation of trade secrets. It cannot be known or deduced directly from prior knowledge. A patent must enable others to use the invention by providing specific directions. The patent system is thus structured and administered to assure the rapid and open dissemination of new knowledge, encourage innovation and promote commerce. Nowhere are patents more central to the creative process than in genetic drug development, where human genes and their expressed proteins themselves are developed as therapies.
Patent protection is the sine qua non of that bonanza.
Without the possibility of recouping investment that is bestowed by patents, no biotechnology company would be able to raise the financing necessary to develop these products. Recently there has been a surge of public confusion and anxiety over gene patenting. It began in March of this year, with misreading of a joint statement by President Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain. The most common public misunderstanding seems to be that patents convey ownership, rather than temporary commercial benefits to inventors. Many laymen also seem to regard genes as an almost spiritual collective essence of humanity and therefore not appropriately subject to commerce.