Rethinking Patent Cultures

自工业革命以来，特别是自世纪末国际商业兴起以来，专利权在许多国家和生活的不同领域得到了广泛的应用。例如，在1990年至2003年期间，美国专利的数量翻了一番多，从每年约80，000件增加到169，000件，并且在生物科学方面的增长尤为显著。然而，虽然这种高水平的全球活动通常会导致学者认为专利已经成为一种简单的全球现象，但从Gooday最近的研究中可以清楚地看到，专利活动和对它的态度在国家之间，行业之间和社区之间存在差异。但是我们应该如何解释这种惊人的复杂现象？专利是否是所有国家保护许多不同领域创新问题的一种自然和直接的解决方案？显然不是，因为许多其他类型的知识产权管理，从贸易保密到公开的知识共享，在上个世纪也蓬勃发展。此外，并非每个国家都将专利法作为创新的先决条件--特别是在亚洲社会，普通个人可能无法拥有或垄断创造性想法。然而，专利文化在工业社会中传播的地方，有时也会引起争议：许多国家长期禁止医疗产品专利，以最大限度地提高公众获得医疗保健的机会。引人注目的是，当专利被申请时，并不总是大企业，有时是少数群体寻求保护他们的技术需求，最明显的是残疾人。因此，有很大的空间来重新映射影响谁为什么专利以及为什么--或者为什么不专利的因素。该研究网络提议在全球一级以及国家和地方一级探讨这一现象在世纪后期的发展。它试图探索不同国家专利活动的微妙之处，以及这些国家对专利的特殊态度发展的经济，社会和技术解释。目前生物医学和身体多样性领域的专利申请活动的明显意义尤其需要解释;因此，该网络将在以后侧重于医学和残疾器具领域的专利申请文化的历史。因此，该项目试图分析政府、工业、律师、发明者和科学家在创新和专利活动中所发挥的作用以及它们之间的关系。该网络特别感兴趣的是，旨在帮助残疾人的医疗工具、药品、设备和电器的用户如何塑造创新，以及专利是否为他们提供了在全球资本主义扩张期间颠覆行业规范的方法。因此，除了历史学家之外，这一广泛的利益攸关方将构成该网络的重要组成部分，并将积极促进和塑造计划中的三个讲习班，将就每个关键领域举办三个讲习班，并出版作为主要学术产出的相关编辑卷（除其他外）。第一次会议将侧重于国家的地方性，并将审查世界各地不同的专利文化;第二次会议将审查医药领域的专利问题，并将审查专利、医疗从业人员、科学家、产业和用户之间的关系;第三次会议将侧重于残疾人的器具，以审查发明者和用户使用专利的方式。为了确保公众充分参与，该网络的研讨会将包括商业、医疗保健、法律和残疾人的代表，通过社交媒体全面报道项目活动和成果，并与公开讲座和展览相结合。此外，每个项目讲习班都将有一个与之相关的公共活动，以最大限度地扩大影响。

Patenting has become widespread in many countries and different areas of life since the industrial revolution, and especially since the rise of international businesses in the late nineteenth century. For example, between 1990 and 2003 the number of U.S. patents more than doubled from about 80,000 to 169,000 per year, and the increase is particularly significant in the biological sciences. However, while this high level of global activity has typically led scholars to assume that patenting has become simply one global phenomenon, it is clear from Gooday's recent research that patenting activity and attitudes towards it has varied between country, by industry and by community.But how should we intepret this strikingly complex phenomenon? Has patenting been a natural and straightforward solution to problems of protecting innovation across many different areas in all countries? Evidently not, since many other kinds of intellectual property management ranging from trade secrecy to open knowledge sharing have also thrived over the last century. Moreover, not every country has embraced patent laws as a prerequisite of innovation - especially in Asian societies where ordinary individuals may not be able to own or monopolize creative ideas. Then again, where patent cultures have spread in industrial societies, it has sometimes been controversial: many countries long prohibited the patenting of medical products in order to maximize public access to healthcare. Strikingly, when patents have been taken up, it has not always been large businesses but sometimes by minority groups seek to protect their technological needs, most notably disabled people. So there is much scope for re-mapping the factors affecting who patents what and why - or indeed why not. This research network proposes to explore the late nineteenth and twentieth century development of this phenomenon at a global level and on a national and local scale. It seeks to explore the subtleties of patenting activity within different countries and the economic, social and technological explanation for the development of particular attitudes towards patenting in these countries. The obvious current significance of patenting activity within biomedicine and bodily diversity in particular requires explanation; and accordingly the network will latterly focus on the history of patenting cultures in medicine and for disability appliances. The project therefore seeks to analyse the roles played by government, industry, lawyers, inventors and scientists in innovation and patenting activity and the relationships between them. The network is particularly interested in the ways in which users of medical tools, pharmaceuticals, devices and appliances designed to assist those with disabilities shaped innovation and whether patents provided them with a method of subverting industry norms during the expansion of global capitalism. In addition to historians, this diverse range of stakeholders will therefore form a vital part of the network and will actively contribute to and shape the three planned workshops.Three workshops will be held on each of the key areas and accompanying edited volumes (inter alia) produced as the main academic output. The first will focus on national locality and will examine different patenting cultures across the world; the second will examine patenting within medicine and will look at the relationship between patents, medical practitioners, scientists, industry and users; the third will concentrate on appliances for people with disabilities to examine the ways in which patents were used by inventors and users. To ensure full public engagement this network's workshops will include representatives of business, healthcare, law and disability, with full social media reporting of project activities and outcomes, allied to public lectures and exhibits. Moreover, each of the project workshops will have a public event associated with it to maximize impact.