Non-singular Logics of IP and Innovation: Beyond the Public-Private
Pratap Devarapalli2, Omkar Nadh Pattela1, 2 St Lucia2, St Lucia Queensland 12, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia21, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
Abstract
The role of intellectual property in health-care innovations is often placed in terms of the nature of its funding vis-à-vis public and/or private. It is commonly assumed that while privately funded innovations use intellectual property (IP) for their monopolistic expansions and profit gains, publicly funded research on the opposite would act in the larger social interest. In the light of the accumulating evidence over the decades, it is now understood this causal narrative appears to be very simplistic. The nature of the innovation whether profit driven or social escapes the singular logic of IP demanding an examination of the contexts that are beyond immediate of the innovation. To illustrate this point, we set out to examine two case studies of large publicly funded research institutions that have different innovation, commercialization and IP strategies: the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in Australia. We examine how the NIH collaborates with the private sector and uses patents and licenses to protect and leverage its IP assets for cancer research and development, while the CEPI collaborates with the public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations and uses strategic IP mechanisms to share and exchange the IP developed through its funding. We argue that the interchangeable role played by the IP in the innovations carried by these large public bodies complicates its dichotomous positioning and necessitates a spectral characterisation.
Biography
Pratap is an IP Strategist and Patent researcher. He has expertise in dealing with Intellectual Property issues in relation to emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D bioprinting and synthetic biology. He is currently a Postdoctoral fellow at TC Bernie School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia. Pratap pursued his PhD from the Centre for Law and Genetics, University of Tasmania, Australia where his research was focused on “Patenting issues related to Bioprinted tissues and Bioinks.