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59 Me. L. Rev. xi (2007)
Foreword

handle is hein.journals/maine59 and id is 263 raw text is: FOREWORD Christine D. Galbraith* On September 29, 2006, the University of Maine School of Law and the Maine Law Review, hosted a conference entitled Closing in on Open Science: Trends in Intellectual Property & Scientific Research. The event brought together academics, practitioners, scientists, and students to evaluate the current structure of intellectual property laws and its impact on innovation. The articles published in this Symposium represent a wide variety of viewpoints and diverse approaches to the issues implicated by the intersection of patent policy with scientific research. The first two articles examine the experimental use exception from quite different perspectives. In Adoption of the Bayh-Dole Act in Developed Countries: Added Pressure for a Broad Research Exemption in the United States?, Michael Mireles begins with a review of the Bayh-Dole Act which altered prior policy by allowing recipients of federal funding to obtain title to any patentable inventions that resulted from such research. In the more than twenty-five years since passage of Bayh-Dole, there has been a proliferation of patenting and licensing by universities, although as Mireles points out it is far from clear whether Bayh-Dole is primarily responsible for this remarkable increase. Nonetheless, in a purported attempt to attain similar growth in patenting, licensing, and related activity, a large number of developed countries have recently adopted or are considering legislation similar to Bayh-Dole. However, as Mireles explains, the historical, practical, and structural differences between university systems in these countries and the United States makes such results even more uncertain. Nevertheless, Mireles cautions that if this legislation has the desired effect in these countries, it could actually have considerable negative consequences in the United States. According to Mireles, the most frequently raised criticism of the Bayh-Dole Act is that it is contributing to the development of a tragedy of the anticommons. Mireles posits that increased patenting and licensing by developed countries could lead to amplification of this problem. This is due to the fact that while countries outside of the United States have robust experimental use exemptions which generally insulate them from an anticommons, the United States has only a very limited common law research exemption. Mireles therefore contends that this dichotomy will result in significant pressure on the United States to enact or develop a more expansive research exception similar to that of most European countries and Japan. In The Experimental Use Exception to Patent Infringement: Do Universities Deserve Special Treatment?, Elizabeth A. Rowe examines the Federal Circuit's decision in Madey v. Duke University,' which held that universities can be found liable for patent infringement when they engage in research or conduct experiments which utilize patented inventions. Although this decision has generally been viewed by academic commentators as a considerable narrowing of the experimental use * Associate Professor of Law, University of Maine School of Law. Many thanks to the participants in the conference and contributors to this Symposium issue. Additionally, thank you to the various members of the Maine Law Review who worked so diligently on this issue, as well as the numerous individuals who were instrumental in the organization and success of this conference. 1. 307 F.3d 1351 (Fed. Cir. 2002).

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