Self-study
The following passage was adapted from a law journal article published in 1998.
P1
██████████ ████ ███ █████████████ ███ █████████ ████ ████████████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██████████ █████████████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ████████████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ██ █████ ████████ ███
Intro topic ·
Intellectual property protection for biotech discoveries
Both industries and academia support protection.
Question ·
How much does patenting in biotech hinder basic research?
P2
███ █████████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████████ █████ ████████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ███████████ ██ █ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ █ ███████████ ██████████ ███
Other people's (OP) perspective ·
Patents hinder basic research through enforcement of patent rights or through contractual agreements
This isn't necessarily the author's view, because of the phrase "perceived threat." We're getting other people's perception of the threat.
Potential way patents slow research ·
Patent infringement
Patent holders might sue or threaten to sue researchers who use patented biological materials.
Potential way patents slow research ·
Contractual agreements
Patent holders might charge researchers incredibly high fees or want other benefits in return for allowing use of patented biological materials.
P3
█████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ███████████ ████ ████ ████ ██
Historical context ·
Some researchers have always tried to hinder access to biological materials
Critique of OP ·
There's reason to think patents won't be enforced in basic and non-commercial research
Just because someone has a patent doesn't mean they can enforce it.
Support for critique ·
Patent litigation is expensive and judges traditionally grant patent exceptions for noncommercial research
Benefit of patents ·
Spurs research by giving financial incentive to innovate
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
13.
Suppose a university researcher wants ██ ███████ ██████ █████████████ ████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ █ ██████████ █████████████ ████████████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████ █████ ███ ████████████ ██████████
a
The researcher will ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ █ █████████████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ████
We don’t know whether the author believes corporations would demand prohibitively high fees. Other researchers fear that this would happen, but we don’t know the author’s opinion about the likelihood of this.
b
The corporation holding ███ ██████ ████ ████████ ████████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███████████
This is the opposite of what the author thinks. The author would likely believe that the researcher probably wouldn’t have the patent enforced against her. This is based on the author’s skepticism that a patent “
c
The university that ███████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███ ███████
There’s no evidence the author thinks the university would take any action to restrict the research.
d
The researcher has █ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ ███ ██ ████████████ █████
Supported, because the author would likely believe that the researcher probably wouldn’t have the patent enforced against her. This is based on the author’s skepticism that a patent “
e
The corporation will ████████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ ████████
There’s no evidence the author thinks the corporation is likely to fund the research. The mere fact that the corporation might profit from the research does not imply the author thinks the corporation would fund the research.