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97 Yale L.J. 177 (1987-1988)
Proprietary Rights and the Norms of Science in Biotechnology Research

handle is hein.journals/ylr97 and id is 195 raw text is: The Yale Law Journal Volume 97, Number 2, December 1987 Articles Proprietary Rights and the Norms of Science in Biotechnology Research Rebecca S. Eisenbergt As basic research in biotechnology yields increasing commercial applica- tions, scientists and their research sponsors have become more eager to protect the commercial value of research discoveries through intellectual property law. Some scientists fear that these commercial incentives will weaken or even undermine the norms that have traditionally governed scientific research. In this Article, Professor Eisenberg examines the interaction of proprietary rights in inventions with these traditional scientific norms. Trade secrecy, she ar- gues, is an undesirable strategy for protection of basic research discoveries because it impedes dissemination of new knowledge to the scientific community. She finds that patent law is in many respects more congruent with scientific norms than trade secrecy because it is premised on disclosure rather than secrecy. Professor Eisenberg demonstrates, however, that the fit between the patent system and the norms and incentives of the scientific community is hardly perfect. Patent law may operate to delay the dissemination of knowl- edge to other researchers. Moreover, by granting rights to exclude others from using patented inventions for a term of years, the patent system threatens the interest of the scientific community in the free use and extension of new discov- eries. Professor Eisenberg concludes that greater sensitivity to the impact of © 1987 Rebecca S. Eisenberg t Associate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School. I wish to thank Marty Add- man, Ed Cooper, Mel Eisenberg, Julie Gage, Judah Garber, Paul Goldstein, Don Herzog, Dick Kaba, Jim Krier, Rick Lempert, Jessica Litman, Fred Schauer, Jonathan Weinberg, Peter Westen, and Virginia Wise for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this Article.

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