Presently, when it comes to the human genome, intellectual property laws have been misconstrued and applied in ways which offend their plain interpretation. Wild-type genes are being patented, granting exclusive, government-sponsored monopolies over gene sequences found in nature, with no necessity for invention or novelty on the part of the discoverer. This is an anomoly in the law of patent, which necessarily requires novelty and inventiveness. Twenty percent of the human genome has now been patented in this way. I argue that the genome is a manner of unencloseable commons, such as other naturally found resources like air and water. Moreover, other means of spurring inventiveness in genomic research exist that would be better used, and less invasive of the individual’s and species’ rights to unfettered possession and exploitation of our genetic heritage.

Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Yale University

David Koepsell has a law degree and PhD in Philosophy from the University of Buffalo. He has authored numerous articles as well as authored and edited several books, including Searle on the Institutions of Social Reality, co-edited with Laurence Moss, (Oxford UK: Blackwell 2003), Reboot World , (New York: Writer’s Club Press 2003) (fiction), and The Ontology of Cyberspace: Law, Philosophy, and the Future of Intellectual Property (Chicago: Open Court 2000). He has lectured world-wide on issues ranging from civil rights, philosophy, science, ontology, intellectual property theory, society, and religion. He is Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism as well as a research Assistant Professor of Philosophy at UB. He is currently the Donaghue Initiative Visiting Scholar in Research Ethics at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics.