Open Science and Intellectual Property Rights: How can they better interact? State of the art and reflections

peter.suber's bookmarks 2022-04-19

Summary:

"Open science (OS) is considered the new paradigm for science and knowledge dissemination. OS fosters cooperative work and new ways of distributing knowledge by promoting effective data sharing (as early and broadly as possible) and a dynamic exchange of research outcomes, not only publications. On the other hand, intellectual property (IP) legislation seeks to balance the moral and economic rights of creators and inventors with the wider interests and needs of society. Managing knowledge outcomes in a new open research and innovation ecosystem is challenging and should become part of the EU’s IP strategy, underpinning EU policies with the new open science–open innovation paradigm. The usual justification for copyright and patents is the incentive and reward for inventors, resulting in benefits for society, fostering innovation and societal impact. Various organisations recognise the need to maintain a balance between the rights of authors and the larger public interest, particularly in education, research and access to information, and to consider the scope, extent and application of intellectual property rights (IPR) in relation to the equitable production, distribution and use of knowledge. However, there are cases of tacit tension in the relationship between IPR and open knowledge distribution noticed on a global scale in different contexts, initiatives and attitudes of the scientific community. This tension has been confirmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, where there is a concern that IPR may prevent public access to medicines, particularly vaccines. Governments, scientists, media and society at large are discussing new licensing provisions to circumvent barriers to human rights such as the right to health or the right to science, without preventing innovation. There is a clear need for reflections such as the one we present here, to address the necessary compatibility of some IPR with OS and open innovation. This report provides a critical analysis of the literature on the relation between OS and IPR protection and how they might live harmoniously, by scoping the statement ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’. The starting point for the analysis about IPR and OS in Europe is the following hypothesis. • There are no incompatibilities between IPR and OS. ‘On the contrary the IPR framework, if correctly defined from the onset, becomes an essential tool to regulate open science’ (Barbarossa et al., 2017, p. 2). • The European Commission has a role in promoting OS and its balance with IPR. This was especially important when copyright was redefined in Europe and the European Open Science Cloud was being established. • Existing best practices have to be a source of inspiration, for example understanding how public research-performing organisations and industrial partnerships are striking a balance between IPR and open knowledge...."

Link:

https://philpapers.org/archive/DELOSA-3.pdf

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » peter.suber's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.new oa.open_science oa.copyright oa.patents oa.europe

Date tagged:

04/19/2022, 13:55

Date published:

04/19/2022, 09:55