Patenting Lives

Patenting Lives includes contributions from various interests and perspectives, both in the context of current international developments in life patents and the global agenda of harmonization of international intellectual property. The book is divided into five sections reflecting the critical issues arising from patents and biotechnology – Context; Human Rights and Ethical Frameworks; Medicine and Public Health; Traditional Knowledge; and Agriculture. The international contributors from government, civil society, academia and the private sector provide diverse perspectives on life patents and the facilitation of social, cultural and economic development in the context of international principles of trade.

Author Biography

Johanna Gibson researches and teaches intellectual property law at the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, within the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, University of London. Her research is primarily concerned with intellectual property and development, traditional knowledge, community governance, and cultural diversity. She has written widely on the social and cultural aspects of creativity and economies in knowledge and creative products, and has acted as a consultant to the UK and European Patent Offices on intellectual property law and policy. She continues to work on the politics of intellectual property and development. Johanna Gibson, Tony Howard, Kathryn Garforth, Adejoke Oyewunmi, Luigi Palombi, Angela A. Stanton, Daniel Robinson, Chika B. Onwuekwe, Diwakar Poudel, Fred H. Johnsen, Dwijen Rangnekar.