Scientific research and patent law: ethical and juridical relationship between them

Abstract

Scientific research and patent law belong to two very different worlds, which made dificult that there are points of contact. While the underlying principles that authorize the granting of a patent (existence of a patentable invention, novelty, a inventive improve in the object or capacity in question and there industrial application) envisioned no conflicts were observed. The changes in patent law as a result of increasing market pressure has led to a transformation that disturbs the free movement of knowledge and scientific research itself; ethical issues of undoubted interest. The most significant notes of this process are described in this work as well as the most important conflicts that arose.