Quem inventa a vida: designers inteligentes, relojoeiros cegos ou engenheiros genéticos?

Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice Advance Access published online on April 22, 2010

Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, doi:10.1093/jiplp/jpq034

Who invents life: intelligent designers, blind watchmakers, or genetic engineers?Graham Dutfield* 

Legal context.: Judgments since the 1980s have confirmed that living things may be claimed in patent applications, albeit with some divergence between jurisdictions. To a large extent, such extension of the scope of patents has followed analogically from the patenting of hormones and antibiotics. The question arises of whether the analogies deployed and resultant subject matter expansionism can be justified given the current state of our knowledge of life and of highly complex living processes.

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Key points.: Fundamental difficulties exist in the patenting of whole life forms. These difficulties are made evident in scientific, philosophical, and theological discussion concerning the appearance of design in life and the special qualities all life forms share that differentiate them from non-living chemical compositions. Such discussion indicates that life is inherently more complex that than any human artefact, and continues not to be well understood. Discussion also points to the autonomy and extraordinary self-creativityof life forms which again suggests that inventorship claims to whole organisms may not be scientifically justifiable atpresent.

Practical significance.: It may be time to rethink the metaphors and analogies used to justify the patenting of whole organisms. Living things are not just chemicals or machines, and are certainly not human artefacts.

Correspondence: * The author gratefully acknowledges comments made on an earlier draft by Uma Suthersanen, and by an anonymous reviewer on this one. I also thank staff and students of the University of Sheffield and Robert Gordon University, to whom I presented preliminary versions of this paper for challenging questions and stimulating discussion. Any defects in the paper are the author's sole responsibility. Email: g.m.dutfield@leeds.ac.uk

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NOTA MEIA UFANISTA DESTE BLOGGER:

Não sei por que, mas eu vi alguma influência de design inteligente em jurisprudência. E ainda têm a cara de pau de afirmar que a teoria do Design Inteligente impede o avanço da ciência... Óleo de peroba neles, urgente!