Patenting Systematics

An interesting news piece came out today in the most recent issue of Science. Elizabeth Pennisi reports that systematists are up in arms over pending patents on methods that have been in place for dozens of years. Such as a novel

“… way to use biological data that has been organized according to evolutionary relatedness. It includes methods for counting evolutionary events and grouping within molecules.”

Can you imagine each time you build a tree or count up synonymous and nonsynonymous sites you could be taken to court for copyright violation? If every scientist patented their measure, index, method or technique then it would be very hard for other researchers to make use of these advances.

Systematic and phylogenetics, indeed much of evolutionary science, has long and great tradition of making resources and knowledge freely available to other resources. Instead of cash, all an author asks for is a citation or a credit. Therefore, it sounded incredulous to me that one researcher was trying to patent a DNA barcode snippet for a plant gene that was being worked on over several years by a large group of researchers. The resulting paper just came out in PNAS. As reported by Pennisi,

“Not until the committee was on the verge of publishing its plan did the rest of the committee discover that Savolainen and a few colleagues had filed a patent application to cover the use of one of the pieces of DNA selected. When the Consortium for the Barcode of Life heard about the pending patent, “we were immediate and emphatic about asking [Savolainen] to withdraw the application,” says consortium executive secretary David Schindel. Savolainen and his colleagues complied.”

If Savolainen were successful with his patent claim it would have forced biologists wishing to apply that particular plant barcode to license that barcode from Savolainen or his employer. This would have put a damper on scientific progress for barcoders and other phylogeneticists that also find that gene a useful marker for their own work.

Systematics is a science that already hampered by a lack of funding. As a taxonomist myself, I’ve often prided myself on being able to do my science on the dime. The initial costs aren’t anything to scoff at, but pale in comparison to molecular and cellular biology. To add additional licensing fees onto already cash-strapped labs is disingenuous and nearly sinister, especially when done by your colleagues who should understand the circumstances. Science thrives best when it is done openly and, wherever possible, freely.

For more on DNA Barcodes, check out the Consortium for the Barcoding of Life website.
Pennisi E (2009) Systematics Researchers Want to Fend Off Patents. Science 325:664. doi:10.1126/science.325_664