Contracts and intellectual property rights in translational R&D: furthering safeguards in the public interest: online talk by Alison Slade and Naomi Hawkins (with video recording)(Nov 17, 2023)

Friday, November 17, 2023
11:30 a.m – 12:30 p.m. EST
Virtual event on Zoom

Balancing private innovation incentives, including patents with public access to the fruits of innovation continues to be challenging. IP rights restrict public access by reserving monopoly control to the rightsholder, requiring those wishing to access the technology to contract with those rightsholders. In this paper, we argue that these contracts which underpin the translational R&D process are an under-explored potential means by which a policy balance within the IP system can be achieved. IP safeguards can, and should, be more widely incorporated into those contracts, to preserve the interests of the public, especially where public funds and resources have spearheaded the innovation process. Greater attention to the contractual terms throughout the translational development chain is a necessary and practically realisable way to achieve this fair balance. Key stakeholders in the translational research chain can make important changes to policies and practices for contracting, in order to enhance the wider public interest.

Dr Alison Slade is an Associate Professor at the University of Leicester, a Research Fellow at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre and a Visiting Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. Her current research investigates the nexus between IP Rights and their commercialisation. Supported by funding from UKRI (ESRC IAA fund), her most recent work has explored the nature and impact of IP terms within contracts that underpin the translational research chain.

Professor Naomi Hawkins is a Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the University of Sheffield, UK. Her research focuses on the interaction of law and biomedical science, particularly around intellectual property rights. She uses traditional legal research and empirical methods to investigate the impact of patents on the development of translational outcomes of biomedical research. She is also interested in the ways in which data sharing practices intersect with intellectual property rights in science. Her research has been funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK.