International Expert Group

“The era of Old intellectual property – the overuse of patents, copyrights and trade-marks – is ending.”
Richard Gold, President

After seven years of work, the International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property, led by McGill University's Dr. Richard Gold, recognized that the era of Old IP was beginning to wane and would soon need to be replaced. The group recognised a critical need to direct the change from Old IP to New IP (i.e. focusing on granting the right amount of IP and better us of it) in order to ensure the appropriate development, production and distribution of medicines, foods and industrial processes (such as the production of clean fuels). The team, comprised of international experts in law, management, economics, ethics, philosophy of science, political science, medicine and biology, convinced the Canadian government of the importance of this work not only for Canada but for the international community. With financial support from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the team spent several years building the necessary tools and knowledge of how IP affects innovation of biotechnology so that now, with the end of the Old IP era, policy is able to advance.

Findings and recommendations of the International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property are available below.

• Team
• Report
• Case Studies
• Data
• Workshops
• Articles

To listen to an audio taping of the release of findings in Ottawa on September 9th, 2008, click the play button below.

To listen to an audio taping of the policy briefing in Washington D.C. on October 14th, 2008, click the play button below.