Intellectual property rights (IPR) and copyright
are designed to encourage innovation and protect the inventor or author.
They can help to ensure that individual scientists and their employers
or funders have ownership of their discoveries and papers and are thus
able to derive financial benefit. This is often considered as an important
incentive for scientific innovation. However, IPR can also be used to
limit access and use of materials and data or information or enforce prohibitive
licensing requirements on scientists. Excessive charging for IPR-protected
products that might otherwise be freely available can have a particularly
adverse affect on scientists in poorer developing countries. There is
a balance to be maintained between the open and free use of data, information
and materials for scientific research and education purposes and the exploitation
of such products for commercial gain. Given the increasing emphasis on
commercialisation, it is important to preserve and strengthen a universally
accessible public domain for science.
IPR policies are increasingly being developed and harmonised at the international
level, in bodies such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation
(WIPO). Science is
not well represented in these fora and hence ICSU is exploring the possibility
of establishing an International Observatory on Science and Intellectual
Property at Inter-Governmental Organizations. This would both monitor
IPR developments and also provide a mechanism to intervene on appropriate
issues.
Preliminary proposal for an Observatory on Science and IPR, August
2006
