The patent law Duchy of Grand Fenwick: a comment on The mouse that trolled: the long and tortuous history of a gene mutation patent that became an expensive impediment to Alzheimer's research

This comment on The mouse that trolled by Tania Bubela, Saurabh Vishnubhakat, and Robert Cook-Deegan discusses the authors’ description of how patents relating to the gene coding for a protein involved in Alzheimer's disease were obtained and used to sue scientific researchers, of how conflicts can arise among groups of researchers, and of how important research can be delayed or foregone by the exercise of patent rights. The authors sought to counter with evidence the optimistic views that patents on such research tools are not used to sue researchers and thus do not impede sequential innovation. The authors proposed legal reforms to avoid such impediments, particularly adoption of a broader experimental use limit to the patent infringement right. This comment agrees with the authors' analysis, but suggests that their descriptions have more substantial implications that extend beyond their example and that their recommendation for limited expansion of the experimental use doctrine does not go far enough.