Patent Law in Global Perspective

Patent Law in Global Perspective addresses critical and timely questions in patent law from a truly global perspective, with contributions from leading patent law scholars from various countries. Offering fresh insights and new approaches to evaluating key institutional, economic, doctrinal, and practical issues, these chapters reflect critical analyses and review developments in national patent laws, efforts to reform the global patent system, and reconfigure geopolitical interests.Professors Ruth L. Okediji and Margo A. Bagley bring together the first collection to explore patent law issues through the lens of economic development theory, international relations, theoretical foundations for the patent law system in the global context, and more. Topics include: the role of patent law in economic development; the efficacy of patent rights in facilitating innovation; patents and access to medicines; comparative patentability standards (including subject matter eligibility for biotechnology and software inventions); limitations and exceptions to patent scope and protection (including exhaustion, compulsory licensing, and research exceptions); patents on plants and other living organisms; and the impact of emerging economies on global patent system governance. The contributors provide a wealth of original insight and thought-provoking discussion that will be of great interest and benefit to scholars, policymakers, and practitioners alike.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Table of Abstracts Chapter 1: Public Welfare and the International Patent System Ruth L. Okediji Part I-Global Patent Law and the Political Economy of Harmonization Chapter 2: Intellectual Property Lawmaking, Global Governance, and Emerging Economies Rochelle C. Dreyfuss Chapter 3: US Executive Branch Patent Policy, Global and Domestic Arti K. Rai Chapter 4: Transnational Legal Ordering and Access to Medicines Gregory Shaffer and Susan K. Sell Chapter 5: The Limits of Substantive Patent Law Harmonization Graham Dutfield Part II-Global Approaches to Subject Matter Standards and Eligibility Chapter 6: Patent Barbarians at the Gate: The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of U.S. Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Disputes Margo A. Bagley Chapter 7: Patent Law's Problem Children: Software and Biotechnology in Transatlantic Context Dan L. Burk Chapter 8: Patenting Plants: A Comparative Synthesis Mark D. Janis Chapter 9: Enablement and Written Description Matthew Fisher Part III-Patents, Institutions, and Innovation Pathways Chapter 10: Indigenous Developmental Networks and the Non-developmental State: Making Intellectual Property Work for Indigenous People without Patents Peter Drahos Chapter 11: Observing the Patent System in Social and Political Perspective: A Case Study of Europe Shobita Parthasarathy and Alexis Walker Chapter 12: Toward a Theory of Regulatory Exclusivities John R. Thomas Part IV-Exceptions and Limits to Patent Protection Chapter 13: A False Sense of Security Offered by Zero-Price Liability Rules? Research Exceptions in the United States, Europe, and Japan in an Open Innovation Context Esther van Zimmeren and Geertrui van Overwalle Chapter 14: Exhaustion and Patent Rights Christopher Heath Chapter 15: A New Approach to the Compulsory License Conundrum Cynthia M. Ho Chapter 16: Balancing "Incentive to Innovate" and "Protection of Competition" An African Perspective on Intellectual Property Rights and Competition Law Mor Bakhoum Part V-TRIPS Compliance, Patent Enforcement, and Patent Remedies Chapter 17: Patentability Criteria as TRIPS Flexibilities: The Examples of China and India Daniel Gervais Chapter 18: Proof of Progress: The Role of the Inventive Step/Non-obviousness Standard in the Indian Patent Office Feroz Ali Khader and Srividhya Ragavan Chapter 19: Pharmaceutical Patent Enforcement: A Development Perspective Shamnad Basheer, Jay Sanklecha and Prakruthi Gowda Chapter 20: A Research Agenda for the Comparative Law and Economics of Patent Remedies Thomas F. Cotter Chapter 21: The Rule of Patent Law (RPL) as Established by the TRIPS Agreement and Its Role of Promoting Trade Rather than Invention Nuno Pires de Carvalho Index

About the Author :
Ruth L. Okediji is the William L. Prosser Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. She is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts on the international intellectual property system, its intersection with multilateral trade regimes, and implications for economic development. Her scholarship focuses on the needs of developing countries and issues of global knowledge governance in the context of international institutions and public international law. Professor Okediji has provided expert advice to numerous countries in drafting national patent laws and in TRIPS implementation and compliance. Margo A. Bagley is a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. She is one of the leading scholars in the area of international and comparative patent law and policy. Her scholarship focuses on issues relating to patents and biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and technology transfer. Professor Bagley is a member of the board of directors of the Public Patent Foundation, and she served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on University Management of Intellectual Property: Lessons from a Generation of Experience, Research, and Dialogue. Professor Bagley also lectures in the Munich Intellectual Property Law Program at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany, and has taught courses in China and Singapore.

Review :
"Ruth Okediji and Margo Bagley have stitched together a vast tapestry into which all the strands of credible patent theory past and present have been skillfully woven. The resulting work has colour, depth, and reflects both those areas of consensus that have driven patent systems together and those dissonances which come so close to shaking them apart. Whatever your view of patents, this collection of essays will be sure to enhance it." --Jeremy Phillips, Professorial Fellow, Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute "Though much of the recent literature on international patent law focuses on harmonization, there is considerable cross-national diversity in patent law and practice. Patent Law in Global Perspective is the best single source describing the reasons for this diversity, the tradeoffs countries face in designing patent law, and the implications of these choices. Fascinating and informative, it will be valuable not only for academics doing research on patents, but also to policymakers considering the wisdom of different policy approaches." --Bhaven N. Sampat, Associate Professor, Columbia University