Genetic Patenting
Genetic PatentingWe as human beings have brought ourselves into the future, being able to modify our food, our lives and even our own bodies. We have paved the road leading us into the future of being able to take life in our own hands and be able to create it ourselves. Our technological advancements in the last ten years have created an idea of mapping our own DNA and actually use it in our favor to cure disease, and understand the human body. The U.S. Human Genome Project began officially in 1990 as a $3-billion, 15-year program to find the estimated 80,000-100,000 human genes and determine the sequence of the 3 billion DNA building blocks that underlie all of human biology and its diversity. “The early phase of the HGP was characterized by efforts to create the biological, instrumentation, and computing resources necessary for efficient production-scale DNA sequencing. The first 5-year plan was revised in 1993 due to remarkable technological progress, and the second plan projected goals through 1998(ornl.gov)”. On June 26th, 2000, President Clinton, leaders of the Human Genome project (HGP) and representatives of the biotechnology company Celera announced the completion of a “working draft” reference DNA sequence of the human genome. The achievement has provided scientists worldwide with a road map to an estimated 90% of genes on every chromosome. Although the draft contains gaps and errors, it provides a valuable scaffold for generating a high-quality reference genome sequence — the ultimate HGP goal expected to be achieved by 2003 or sooner. We are essentially almost finding out how life had been created and actually becoming the creator.
“A patent is a kind of license granted by the government to an inventor. It gives the inventor the right, through the courts to stop competition or rivals from making, using, or selling and invention without his or her permission. When a patent is granted, the
invention becomes the property of the inventor. However, the patent can be bought, sold, or rented.(www.guardianunlimited.com)” The only way something can be patented is if they meet the four criteria the U.S Patent and Trademark Office has made. The inventor must identify some useful purpose for the invention, it must be a novel invention that was not known or used prior to the filing of a patent. It has to be non-obvious, or not something easily made by someone trained in that area. The invention must also be understandable to one skilled in the field to use it for the stated purpose (or enablement). Patent priority is based on the “first to invent” principle. Whoever made the invention first is awarded property rights for a 20-year period. This means that no one can use the same idea as their own when manufacturing a product, or they can be sued by the patent holder for stealing an idea in the public realm. The...
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