Open Source, Open Access, and Open Transfer: Market Approaches to Research Bottlenecks

The Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property has accepted a paper I co-​​authored with Professor Robin Feldman of UC Hastings School of Law. The name of the piece is Open Source, Open Access, and Open Transfer: Market Approaches to Research Bottlenecks. It should appear in full pub­lished form before the end of 2008.

The piece deals with so-​​called “patent thick­ets” and the extent such bot­tle­necks may be impact­ing research, espe­cially in the field of biotech­nol­ogy. Whether they really exist or not may be imma­te­r­ial, as sev­eral approaches have nev­er­the­less appeared to deal with their poten­tial to restrict research. The piece looks calls three cur­rent approaches: “open source,” “open access,” and “open trans­fer,” and looks at the ways in which these approaches are used to deal with poten­tial “thick­ets,” and, indi­rectly, to thus see their pos­si­ble scope.

Much of this is based on Professor Feldman’s exten­sive intel­lec­tual prop­erty and patent work, some of which, at least, is openly avail­able through SSRN.

UPDATE: Open Source, Open Access, and Open Transfer: Market Approaches to Research Bottlenecks is now avail­able on SSRN.

Related articles