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While enhancing our registration and protection functions the most private aspect of IP has been a priority, we have also been focusing on disseminating knowledge and technology transfer.
Download a PDF of "A Patent System for the 21st Century" by the National Research Council for free. giuliettasprint.konfer.eu: A Patent System for the 21st Century (): National Research Council, Policy and Global Affairs, Technology, and Economic Policy.
This public-interest dimension of the social contract that underpins the IP system often falls from view. To reinforce this aspect of our work, we have created a series of tools and training programs to promote use of the IP system and enable more people to enjoy the benefits of the system.
These include:. Today, IP offices no longer deal only with traditional actors: patent or trademark agents, companies and inventors. Instead of serving the few, they must reach out to civil society, universities, small and medium-sized enterprises, patients, farmers and artisans.
A modern IP office must also be equipped to operate in an interconnected and complex international framework, and open to cooperate with its counterparts in other countries. INAPI has gradually and systematically increased the quality of its services, and by simplifying and streamlining procedures has significantly reduced the time it takes to process the applications it receives.
INAPI will also set up and coordinate a public task force with industry participation to support national efforts to reinforce respect for IP rights. National enforcement authorities are also being encouraged to develop a unified information system that is available to the public.
This will support policy development and greater transparency. INAPI is also exploring the feasibility of incorporating arbitration and mediation into its portfolio of services. INAPI is also continuing to lobby the National Congress for the adoption of a new IP law that is better suited to the present-day realities of the information and knowledge society. Once IP offices improve their operating efficiency and service provision, their next big challenge is to develop the capacity to promote innovation, the dissemination of knowledge and technology transfer.
This latter aspect relates primarily to promoting access to IP-related databases, managing IP information, ensuring that IP policy balances the often competing interests of creators and the general public, and promoting broader use of the public domain. This can be achieved by making use of the flexibilities that exist within national and international IP law and by creating linkages with legislation on competition, public health, the environment and education.
Today, IP offices must be open, transparent, local, flexible, proactive and creative. They can no longer be satisfied with providing adequate service, but must focus on offering outstanding service that is efficient, effective and high quality.
At INAPI, we aspire to be more than just an office that adapts to the knowledge society, meets user needs and provides quality service. This is the role of an IP office in the 21 st century. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WIPO concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. But he argues that such legal tools are not nuanced enough for biotechnical innovation, where inventions can be at once more intellectually subtle and morally ambiguous.
Dr Rimmer laments the rise of 'patent trolls' - companies that take out patents on very slight biotechnical innovations, and then hold other researchers to ransom if they attempt to make any progress in that particular area. On the other hand, he acknowledges the legal and ethical complexities surrounding the actions of scientists like those at the J.
Craig Venter Institute in the US, who are trying to patent the method for creating a synthetic life-form. While the organism involved is incredibly simple, Dr Rimmer says such moves could lead to patents being taken out on much more complex living things.
Dr Rimmer argues that in order to provide more incentives and protections for scientific innovation, there needs to be greater scope in Australia and elsewhere for challenges to patent applications. He also says there is a need for a broader legal defence of experimentation.