Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Intellectual property (IP) has become a crucial factor in scientific knowledge production which is based predominantly on profits and market relations facilitated by Intellectual property rights (IPRs).The result of this production is a 'proprietary knowledge', i.e. an over-patented knowledge which cannot be legally used or produced without the right holder's consent.This work aims to 'reopen' the debate about IP recalling the 'knowledge commons' argument in order to affirm a diversity of ownership definitions, e.g.individual, multiple, collaborative, communitarian and public.The article introduces a brief analyse about the philosophy underlying IPfrom authors such as Locke, Hegel and Marxfor a critical appraisal of theoretical and social aspects of knowledge property.The discussion presented about contemporary IP and its consequences for scientific production, includes the study of a biopiracy case involving the Waoranis, an Ecuadorean indigenous community, as an example of the 'over-patenting' of life and knowledge.Thus, in favour of the 'knowledge commons' argument, the paradigmatic case about the donation of the malaria vaccine patent is revised to show that it is possible to organise a scientific production guided by alternative criteria.The methodology used was the critical revision of primary bibliography and academic literature.
Source: MASKANA
Author: Marco Ambrosi de la Cadena
Institution: University of Cuenca
Language: English
Topic: Intellectual Property Law
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2664953909