Intellectual Property in Synthetic Biology - Enacted Issues of Sharing and Owning |
Synthetic biology research aims to design, redesign and engineer biological systems, making biological devices with novel functions and various applicability within healthcare, environment and energy. The Royal Academy of Engineering wrote in 2009 that "synthetic biology has the potential to create another raft of major new industries, the development of which is likely to have profound implications for the future of the UK, European and world economies."(Royal Society 2008). So far numerous initiatives have been made, in the public and private sector in an attempt to deal with ethical, legal and societal issues (ELSI) pertaining to developments in synthetic biology (Marris 2011;Lentzos 2009;Chugh & Saukshmya 2009;Calvert 2008; Maureen A. O’Malley, et.al 2007).
Efforts towards reaching the broad industrial and economic potentials of synthetic biology, as mentioned above, are already influencing many other scientific disciplines as well as various aspects of civil and ecological life, raising societal and environmental concerns (Lentzos 2008; Calvert & Martin 2009; Walhberg & Bauer 2009:2). Questions of how to govern the technology has become a matter of utmost importance, and a matter of great contestation, bringing to the forefront of the controversy a juxtaposition containing open source and patent-pro intellectual property regimes within synthetic biology research (Rai & Boyle 2007;Lentzos 2009:305). While the 'matter of concern' (how to govern synthetic biology) seems to be a crowded hot spot for debate and disagreement, the disputing parties take into account and foreground different stakeholders; being the environment, societal benefits, national security or innovation at large. In other words; intellectual property centered concerns about how to govern synthetic biology research is articulated differently. And several official reports raise the question: "how should synthetic biology best be governed to maximise benefits and minimise risks?" (BIOS working paper no. 4. may 2011)
The present study is a supervised research project carried out by students in the MACOSPOL (Mapping Controversies on Science for Politics) program at the University of Copenhagen, with the aim of mapping normative infiltrations in open source and patent-pro approaches to questions of intellectual property (IP) within synthetic biology, in an attempt to make sense of what is at stake in the synthetic biology-IP-controversy.