Harvard University owns a species of mouse that's susceptible to cancer. Amazon.com says they own the idea of "one click shopping." The Monsanto Corporation owns its own amber strains of grain.
The "Harvard Mouse Patent:" Claim 1. A transgenic non-human mammal all of whose germ cells and somatic cells contain a recombinant activated oncogene sequence introduced into said mammal, or an ancestor of said mammal, at an embryonic stage. [U.S. Patent No. 4,736,866]
Biotech companies are trying to own our DNA code, gene by gene. Lots of American universities are trying to own all the ideas that come out of their labs. Some Shakespearean scholars have even gone to court over the ownership of an interpretation of Hamlet.
Meantime, there's no defense against people freely building CD collections online, nor anyway to make sure the musicians who wrote the music get paid. Even Frank Sinatra would have trouble collecting his royalties these days, but with the human genome about to be published, and patented, could he still claim ownership of those old blue eyes?
The battle for intellectual property - in this hour. (Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
