Journal of Political Economy · 2013 · 508 citations · 61 references
LawGeneticsIntellectual Property LawGenomicsInnovationIntellectual PropertyGenome SequencingIntellectual Property PolicyIntellectual Property ProtectionIntellectual Property RightsIntellectual Property StrategyResearch CommercializationHuman Genome Project ApplicationsIntellectual Property ContributionIntellectual Property Rights Management
Intellectual property rights on existing technologies, such as the initial two‑year IP held by Celera on its sequenced genes, may hinder subsequent innovation before those genes enter the public domain. The study estimates how Celera’s gene‑level IP affected later scientific research and product development using new data from the Human Genome Project and Celera. The authors use newly collected data on genome sequencing by the Human Genome Project and Celera to estimate the impact of Celera’s gene‑level IP on subsequent research and product development. The analysis shows that Celera’s IP reduced subsequent scientific research and product development by 20–30 percent and that these short‑term IP restrictions had persistent negative effects compared to a counterfactual where the genes had always been public.
Do intellectual property (IP) rights on existing technologies hinder subsequent innovation? Using newly-collected data on the sequencing of the human genome by the public Human Genome Project and the private firm Celera, this paper estimates the impact of Celera's gene-level IP on subsequent scientific research and product development. Genes initially sequenced by Celera were held with IP for up to two years, but moved into the public domain once re-sequenced by the public effort. Across a range of empirical specifications, I find evidence that Celera's IP led to reductions in subsequent scientific research and product development on the order of 20 to 30 percent. Taken together, these results suggest that Celera's short-term IP had persistent negative effects on subsequent innovation relative to a counterfactual of Celera genes having always been in the public domain.
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Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome
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The Sequence of the Human Genome
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