This chapter aims to assess the significance of the patents system for the process of innovation, especially in relation to biotechnology. It looks first at the essential features of the patent. Working on the basis that the patent is presently important to investment in biotechnology innovation, it then examines recent developments in patent policy with regard to that technology, focusing on the innovation of living organisms. Why is the case of living organisms chosen? The capacity to create living organisms (and especially higher life forms) will have a profound impact upon the course of scientific and industrial relations. Indeed, social relations generally are implicated: life itself is being redefined. These ramifications are not just a question for patents policy. But the appropriability of life is an exciting issue. When the infrastructure of property rights is so much taken for granted in Western societies, biotechnology presents a real question about the reach of the property form. It is no small question to ask how the administrators, courts and legislators are responding to this question.

THE PATENTS SYSTEM GENERALLY

This section begins with a brief outline of the patents system. It identifies the justifications advanced for the provision by the state of a property right over certain kinds of innovations. It reviews the contention that patents are not regarded as an attractive strategy for capturing the benefits of innovation. The section goes on to identify concerns, in both industry and the wider society, about the command the patent power gives over the direction of innovation and access to its benefits. It suggests, however, that the patents systems are unlikely to be qualified in any fundamental way.