Techniques, implements, inventions: Changes in biotechnology

Author(s): Keating, P.

Journal/Book: Sociol Trav. 1996; 38: 15 Rue Gossin, 92543 Montrouge Cedex, France. Dunod. 349.

Abstract: How does a common action arise between researchers, industrialists and legal experts when patents are filed ? This question is investigated by looking at the controversies that have arisen around hybridoma technology in bioindustry. Five issues are studied: the definition of a basic technique, the notion of identical antibodies, the meaning of an obvious application, the persons recognized as experts, and the determination of what is to be set down to natural properties or to human interventions. The work that changes hybridoma into an ''invention'' results from a construction that brings together science and law.

Note: Article A Cambrosio, Mcgill Univ, Dept Social Studies & Med, 3655 Drummond St, Montreal, Pq H3G 1Y6, Canada

Keyword(s): MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES; JUDICIAL PROTECTION; PATENTS

Zurück | Weiter