Biobazaar: The Open Source Revolution and Biotechnology
- Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press 2008
- 428 pages ; 22 cm
An irresistible analogy -- The trouble with intellectual property in biotechnology -- Intellectual property and innovation -- Welcome to the bazaar -- Open source licensing for biotechnology -- Foundations of the biobazaar -- Financing open source biotechnology -- Biotechnology's open source revolution.
"Fighting disease, combating hunger, preserving the balance of life on Earth: the future of biotechnological innovation may well be the future of our planet itself. And yet the vexed state of intellectual property law - a proliferation of ever more complex rights governing research and development - is complicating this future. At a similar point in the development of information technology, "open source" software revolutionized the field, simultaneously encouraging innovation and transforming markets. The question that Janet Hope explores in Biobazaar is: can the open source approach do for biotechnology what it has done for information technology? Her book is the first sustained and systematic inquiry into the application of open source principles to the life sciences."--Jacket.