Annual Innovation Panel: Do Patents have a ‘Chilling Effect’ on the Incentives for Research?

Chaired by Sir Robin Jacob, Hugh Laddie Professor of Intellectual Property Law, UCL Laws

About this event

A patent is a grant of the exclusive right for a novel, non-obvious invention. The value of patents to society lies in the incentives they provide to research and develop useful inventions.

Today many are prepared to argue that patents retard research and development and so hold back economic progress.

This conference will examine the arguments and evidence on both sides of this debate.

The four panelists have a maximum of 15 minutes to speak. A Q&A session will follow.

The speakers include

• The Rt. Hon. Sir Robin Jacob, Hugh Laddie Professor of Intellectual Property Law, UCL Faculty of Laws (Chair)
• Nikolaus Thumm, Senior Fellow, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (former Chief Economist, European Patent Office)
• John Howells, Associate Professor, Aarhus University, author of works on allegations of development “hold up” allegedly caused by the patents of Wright brothers, Edison, Selden (litigating against Ford Motor Co.) and Fleming’s diode patent (in early US radio).
• Professor Ken Shadlen, Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Author of forthcoming book (Coalitions and Compliance: The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Patents in Latin America) and currently engaged in an examination of how developing countries have evolved policies on secondary patents, TRIPS Implementation and Secondary Pharmaceutical Patenting.
• David Rosenberg, Glaxo Smith Kline (tbc)

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