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Bovenberg, Jasper A. --- "Accessibility of Biological Data: A Role for the European Database Right?" [2009] ELECD 496; in Castle, David (ed), "The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Biotechnology Innovation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Biotechnology Innovation

Editor(s): Castle, David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847209801

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: Accessibility of Biological Data: A Role for the European Database Right?

Author(s): Bovenberg, Jasper A.

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

13. Accessibility of biological data:
a role for the European database
right?
Jasper A. Bovenberg

INTRODUCTION

One of the challenges in the post-genomics era is the study of common
complex disorders (Collins, Green, Gutmacher and Guyer, 2003, 840).
This type of research involves the study of links between genotype and
phenotype; between abstract genomic data and concrete patient medical
records. This, in turn, requires that collections of either type of data are
accessible for those who were not its primary producers.
The accessibility of genomic and phenotype data runs a spectrum. At
one end are large-scale collections of abstract genomic data produced
by publicly funded scientists. These data are widely accessible as funders
require immediate, unrestricted and even pre-publication release. At the
other extreme are small-scale collections of phenotype data made by indi-
vidual scientists, typically in a hybrid clinical/research setting. These col-
lections tend to be only conditionally accessible, as the primary producers
often feel that they have earned an exclusive right to use `their' collection
of data concerning `their' patients or subjects.
Two unrelated developments might impact on the current degree of
accessibility of the collections at either end of the spectrum. First, large-
scale projects are moving from assembling raw genomic data with little or
no `utility' in the patent sense of the law, to producing `functional data'
with increasing utility. The increased `patentability' of these novel data
may undermine the data release policies of these projects. Second, data
in small-scale ...