Patent Law and Women

Patent Law and Women PDF

Author: Jessica C. Lai

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-09-30

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1000449777

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This book analyses the gendered nature of patent law and the knowledge governance system it supports. The vast majority of patented inventions are attributed to male inventors. While this has resulted in arguments that there are not enough women working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, this book maintains that the issue lies with the very nature of patent law and how it governs knowledge. The reason why fewer women patent than men is that patent law and the knowledge governance system it supports are gendered. This book deconstructs patent law to reveal the multiple gendered binaries it embodies, and how these in turn reflect gendered understandings of what constitutes science and an invention, and a scientist and an inventor. Revealing the inherent biases of the patent system, as well as its reliance on an idea of the public domain, the book argues that an egalitarian knowledge governance system must go beyond socialised binaries to better govern knowledge creation, dissemination and maintenance. This book will appeal to scholars and policymakers in the field of patent law, as well as those in law and other disciplines with interests in law, gender and technology.

Gender Inequality in Pharmaceutical Patent Law

Gender Inequality in Pharmaceutical Patent Law PDF

Author: S. Sean Tu

Publisher:

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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A recent study by professors found that women represent only one-third of the top pharmaceutical patent litigators and one-quarter of lawyers who help inventors obtain these valuable pharmaceutical patents. This lack of representation in the pharmaceutical patent field is surprising because women represent the majority of law school students who have natural sciences degrees. Despite conventional wisdom, which alleges that this lack of representation is due to the absence of women within technical fields (the “pipeline” theory), this study rebuts the pipeline theory. Specifically, the study shows that women law students with natural sciences degrees outnumber their male counterparts and yet women are underrepresented when it comes to pharmaceutical patent prosecution and litigation.

Diversity in Intellectual Property

Diversity in Intellectual Property PDF

Author: Irene Calboli

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-05-28

Total Pages: 561

ISBN-13: 131629935X

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This book aims to create an interface between intellectual property and diversity - including cultural, biological, religious, racial, and gender-based diversity. While acknowledging that the historical rationale for intellectual property protection is based on theories of utilitarian incentives and property rights, the authors of this volume assert that the current intellectual property framework is not incompatible with including diversity as part of its objectives. Through its various themes, this book delves into the debate of whether such inclusion can be made possible and how intellectual property norms could be effectively used to protect and promote diversity. In this volume, leading scholars address ongoing regional, national, and international debates within the contexts of diversity, the existing legal framework, and the broader political and economic climate. The authors tackle such wide-ranging topics as the prohibition against trademarking slurs and concepts of intellectual property in ancient Indian texts.

Do Patents Have Gender?

Do Patents Have Gender? PDF

Author: Dan L. Burk

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13:

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Patent law offers a set of exclusive rights to innovators, awarding such rights for inventions that meet certain statutory criteria. The statutory requirements for invention incorporate purportedly objective criteria against which new technologies are measured for patent eligibility. For example, inventions are assessed from the perspective of the fictional “person having ordinary skill in the art” (PHOSITA) for compliance with the statutory requirements of obviousness, enablement, and written description.Feminist scholarship has previously questioned representations of objectivity, as purportedly neutral criteria may be oriented toward a rational, masculine default that is in fact anything but neutral. Previous scholarship has disclosed such bias in fields including both the legal and scientific standards that intersect in the patent statute. These analytical tools may yield similar insights when applied to patents. In particular, feminist insights regarding situated knowledge may prove to be helpful in understanding the inherent assumptions of the patent system, as well as the effects of such assumptions.

Patent Law in Global Perspective

Patent Law in Global Perspective PDF

Author: Ruth L. Okediji

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 770

ISBN-13: 0199334277

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Patent Law in Global Perspective addresses critical and timely questions in patent law from a truly global perspective, with contributions from leading patent law scholars from various countries and various disciplines. The rich scholarship featured reflects on a wide range of perspectives, offering insights and new approaches to evaluating key institutional, economic, doctrinal, and practical issues that are at the forefront of efforts to reform the global patent system, and to reconfigure geo-political interests in on-going multilateral, trilateral, and bilateral initiatives.

Unregistered Patents & Gender Equality

Unregistered Patents & Gender Equality PDF

Author: Miriam Marcowitz-Bitton

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 47

ISBN-13:

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Women do not get a fair share when it comes to patenting and are far less likely to own patents. This disparity is in part because of not only the inherent biases in science and technology and in the patent system itself, but also because of the high costs of even applying for patents. This article therefore proposes an unconventional new regime of unregistered patent rights to relieve women and other disadvantaged inventors of the costs of applying for registered patent rights and to help them gain greater access to patent protections. Patents are a glaring exception to the unregistered protections provided in other areas of intellectual property, which are more egalitarian in design. By providing automatic patent rights, our proposed regime would allow for greater protection for disadvantaged innovators, in much the same way that copyright, trademark, and other forms of intellectual property currently do.To explain our proposal, we detail the challenges facing women and other disadvantaged inventors in applying for patents as well as the fact that other intellectual property regimes do not require such applications. We also address a number of objections that our proposal would inevitably raise. In particular we show that, because our proposed unregistered patent system would grant rights for only three years and would protect only against direct copying, these rights would be unlikely to deter incremental or complementary innovation. Such rights would also be fully subject to invalidation under a preponderance of the evidence standard.Our proposed regime does not solve all of the issues female innovators face. Nonetheless, our proposed regime would benefit women and others by providing protection at no cost, without filing or renewal fees, and equally importantly, by protecting even inventors with little or no knowledge of the patent system and its importance in realizing the benefits of their inventive efforts.

Patents and Gender

Patents and Gender PDF

Author: Jessica C. Lai

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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Patent law is considered to be an objective law, dealing with the objective subject matter of the “technical arts”. Yet, empirical studies show that patenting rates around the world are gendered. This article analyses the roots of the gender patent gap, and how this correlates to the invention and innovation processes. It shows that the gendered nature of the patent-regulated knowledge governance system forces women into traditionally male spaces and fields in order to partake in the extant patent game. Yet, when they enter those spaces and fields, they often find themselves unwelcome and subject to institutional, structural or organisational biases, which impinge upon their ability to invent, patent and commercialise. The article re-frames the discourse around women inventors. It argues that we have to stop focussing on the “women in science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM)” narrative, because it is a distraction from the underlying problem that the Western knowledge governance system reflects the hegemonic powers at play. Instead, we need to re-think the knowledge governance system and the ecosystem it creates, in order to ensure egalitarian knowledge production and protection.