History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
Parthasarathy, Shobita
Science in Human Culture Program
and Department of Sociology
Northwestern University
Illinois - shobita@northwestern.edu
A Patent Battleground: Building Europe through the Politics of Patenting Biotechnology
In 1998, the European Union passed the Directive for the Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions. This Directive sought to harmonize patent law in the area of biotechnology across the EU, in order to create a receptive ground for the globalizing biotechnology industry. While the Directive seems like a simple economically-driven law, the politics surrounding its passage and implementation have been almost unprecedented in EU politics. Instead of closing debate about the future of biotechnology, the Directive opened vigorous controversies over the patentability of life and the future of European government-sponsored health care systems. While companies and industry lobbying organizations argue that a strong European intellectual property regime will improve health care through access to better technologies, many European governments and advocacy groups respond that participation in a global patenting regime conflicts with deeply held European and national commitments to promoting innovation for the public good and equal access to health care. This paper focuses on how, in an attempt to shape intellectual property policy to support a global biotechnology regime, the European Union has opened debate not only on biotechnology and patent rights, but also on the appropriate shape of European health care and public order. What kinds of alliances are being formed, among whom, and on what basis? How are they mobilizing and trying to influence the patenting of biotechnology? What kinds of argumentation are they employing? What are the implications of these politics for the provision of health care in the European Union and the globalization of the biotechnology industry?
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006