Biotechnology, Patents and Human Rights in Europe

有关人体的创新

Helena Żakowska-Henzler, Professor of Law, Żaneta Zemła-Pacud, Assistant Professor and Tomasz Zimny, Assistant Professor, Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

This innovative book explores the complex interplay between intellectual property for biotechnological innovations and human rights. Examining the clash between the drive to incentivise innovations that can fulfil human needs and the desire to grant global access to healthcare technologies, it presents thoughtful solutions to the challenges of protecting the human rights of all parties impacted by biotechnological patents and other relevant IP rights.

‘This well-researched and informative book provides a unique insight into the complex intersections of biotechnology, patents and human rights in Europe. The authors distil the issues from a complicated web of laws and policies. Researchers and policy-makers should read this book to both understand how the law works and also how it might be improved.’
– Susy Frankel, University of Wellington, New Zealand

‘Patents in the field of biotechnological innovations as well as their enforcement have always triggered important tensions with a broad variety of human rights, in particular the right to health, human dignity, and the right to science. This very timely book explores these interactions, using an international, European and comparative law approach and offers a very stimulating analysis of the multiple legal and moral aspects of the topic, laying the foundation for an ethical approach to patent law in the future in the field of biotechnology.’
– Christophe Geiger, Luiss Guido Carli University, Italy

‘Focusing on the sphere of biotechnology, this book commands the attention of both the legal and scientific communities. For lawyers, it provides a detailed background on recently-developed medical technologies and discusses their impact on personal integrity and health care. For scientists, it explains the nature of the exclusive rights that national laws create to encourage investment in biotechnological innovation. For both communities, the book then provides a thoughtful discussion of approaches to balancing the interests of right holders against the human rights to health and to the benefits of science. Biotechnology is not the only sphere where intellectual property and human rights clash; the analysis provided here will be invaluable when other emerging problems, including climate change, pollution, and food security, arise.’
– Rochelle Dreyfuss, New York University, School of Law, US