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Jaszi, Peter --- "Rights in Basic Information" [2009] ELECD 578; in Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo; Roffe, Pedro (eds), "Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development

Editor(s): Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo; Roffe, Pedro

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446458

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Rights in Basic Information

Author(s): Jaszi, Peter

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

1. Rights in basic information
Peter Jaszi

INTRODUCTION

This chapter sets out to map cross-cutting developments in the contemporary law of
intellectual property rights (IPRs) in which their scope and application have been con-
tinually expanding. These developments may ultimately be frustrating the cause they were
originally intended to promote, that is, innovation to benefit the public at large. Powerful
economic and political pressures toward the increasing commodification of informa-
tion are at work nationally and internationally in today's legal environment. Among the
many potential adverse consequences is the enclosure of basic information essential to
continued cultural production. As basic inputs to the innovation process are privatized,
it becomes increasingly likely that legal rights will be misused in efforts to intentionally
impede competition. It is just as likely, however, that the commercial rationing of existing
stores of information will chill the generation of new knowledge.
Four trends are explored in this chapter:

1. the experiment with intellectual property rights in non-original databases in the
European Union and (potentially) beyond;
2. the movement toward data exclusivity rules relating to test information on
pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals;
3. patent protection for basic research tools (including equipment, reagents and
biological compounds); and
4. anticircumvention provisions that create an additional layer of legal protection for
copyrighted works in digital formats.

The instances that constitute each trend operate to impede access to basic information in
various ways. Each trend has been a response to the demands of rights holders, with little or
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