Book contents
- Patents on Life
- Patents on Life
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Prefatory Note and Acknowledgements
- Opening
- I Life Patents, Law, and Morality
- 2 Morality, Religion, and Patents
- 3 Religious and Moral Grounds for Patent-Eligible Subject Matter Exclusions
- 4 Life-Form Patents: Proceedings in the European Patent Office and the Role of Non-commercial Parties
- II Religious Perspectives on Life Patents
- III Social Justice and Political Aspects
- Closing
- Index
3 - Religious and Moral Grounds for Patent-Eligible Subject Matter Exclusions
from I - Life Patents, Law, and Morality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 September 2019
- Patents on Life
- Patents on Life
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Prefatory Note and Acknowledgements
- Opening
- I Life Patents, Law, and Morality
- 2 Morality, Religion, and Patents
- 3 Religious and Moral Grounds for Patent-Eligible Subject Matter Exclusions
- 4 Life-Form Patents: Proceedings in the European Patent Office and the Role of Non-commercial Parties
- II Religious Perspectives on Life Patents
- III Social Justice and Political Aspects
- Closing
- Index
Summary
Exclusions from patentable subject matter eligibility for scientific and natural discoveries and for abstract ideas were justified historically on religious, deontological and utilitarian moral grounds. This chapter briefly traces the history of such exclusions derived from the United Kingdom and transplanted to the United States. It then explains why such discoveries were to be treated in the United States as prior art against the applicant. Consequently, in order to claim a patent eligible “invention,” an applicant had to do more than merely apply his scientific, natural, or abstract discovery for practical benefit. Rather, the creative advance had to be in the application itself, rather than in the discovery it applied. This approach differs from that adopted in the United Kingdom and in Europe. The chapter concludes by discussing why the line between discovery and patent eligible invention matters morally and practically and will continue to be contested.
Keywords
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- Information
- Patents on LifeReligious, Moral, and Social Justice Aspects of Biotechnology and Intellectual Property, pp. 38 - 58Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019