Johanna Gibson, Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Queen Mary University of London, was interviewed by SciDev.Net about a report on a study of patents, which suggests that innovation in parts of the developing world is falling further behind that in rich countries.
Professor Gibson says: “The problem for developing countries is that they do not necessarily have the educational and research structure to try and start catching up with research at the forefront.”
One way around this problem, the study suggests, is to transfer usage rights inventions, such as vaccines, to less innovative countries once they have been commercially exploited in richer countries. But this approach has its limitations, Toivanen says. “It should be about providing capabilities to solve problems within that society, not about providing them with quick fixes.”