Governing Digitally Integrated Genetic Resources, Data, and Literature: Global Intellectual Property Strategies for a Redesigned Microbial Research Commons

The free exchange of microbial genetic information is an established public good, facilitating research on medicines, agriculture, and climate change. However, over the past quarter-century, access to genetic resources has been hindered by intellectual property claims from developed countries under the World Trade Organization's TRIPS Agreement (1994) and by claims of sovereign rights from developing countries under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (1992). In this volume, the authors examine the scientific community's responses to these obstacles and advise policymakers on how to harness provisions of the Nagoya Protocol (2010) that allow multilateral measures to support research. By pooling microbial materials, data, and literature in a carefully designed transnational e-infrastructure, the scientific community can facilitate access to essential research assets while simultaneously reinforcing the open access movement. The original empirical surveys of responses to the CBD included here provide a valuable addition to the literature on governing scientific knowledge commons.

Jerome H. Reichman is the Bunyan S. Womble Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law. His research deals with the impact of intellectual property on public health, developing countries, and global science policy. He is the co-author, most recently, of Intellectual Property Rights: Legal and Economic Challenges for Development (2014).

Paul F. Uhlir, JD was Director of the Board on Research Data and Information at the National Academies in Washington, DC, and of the US CODATA until the end of 2014. He is currently a Scholar at the National Academy of Sciences and a consultant on data policy and management.

Tom Dedeurwaerdere is Director of the Biodiversity Governance Unit and Professor of the Philosophy of Social Sciences at Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. The editor of two books on the global environmental commons, he was recently awarded a grant from the European Research Council for a project on governing the global genetic resource commons.