The ERC PatentsInHumans team are delighted to publish our second annual report today written by Prof Aisling McMahon and Sinéad Masterson. In this report, we provide an overview of the main research activities and key achievements/events in the second year of the PatentsInHumans project. We also outline plans as we move forward in Year 3 of the project.
In year 2, as highlighted in the report, a key part of the research focused on developing deeper understandings of the potential bioethical issues posed by patents over technologies related to how we treat, use and modify the human body. Research was conducted to develop a deeper understanding of scope of the ‘bioethical’ implications which can arise in such contexts, and how ‘bioethics’ as a term is defined within the project. At an institutional level, the project continued to explore avenues within and outside patent law, which could be used to engage with bioethical issues posed by patent use. As part of the work, research was conducted examining the role and limits of competition law, human rights and various patent licensing approaches to engage with potential bioethical issues that can arise. Alongside this, the project research has continued to develop the theoretical institutional framework for considering how decision-making actors and other institutional factors may influence the interpretation of relevant patent law provisions and the operation of patent law in practice. The team also commenced work on refining the design of focus group/interview empirical work, in light of the emerging case studies and theoretical/conceptual foundations.
The report provides a brief general overview of the project, an introduction to new team members, details of the PatentsInHumans first international conference, dissemination activities, a list of publications, team news and an outline of future activities.
The report is available to download here:
Patents In Humans Year 2 Project Report
The PatentsInHumans project is a large five-year project led by Professor Aisling McMahon, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University. The project is funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant, and is based in the School of Law and Criminology, and ALL Institute Maynooth University. You can find out more about the project on our project website here.
