The current state of ethics in relation to patents

초록

Patents are intended to incentivize innovation by granting inventors exclusive rights; however, in the biomedical sciences, they frequently intersect with ethical dilemmas involving public access, potential harms, and distributive justice. Legal frameworks, such as those in Korea and international treaties, prohibit patents on inventions that violate public health or morality. Nevertheless, identifying ethical risks at the application stage remains challenging. High-profile controversies, such as gene patenting (e.g., BRCA1/2 and CRISPR-Cas9) and embryonic stem cell patents, highlight divergent national standards and ongoing debates regarding the public domain status of genetic information and the permissibility of inventions derived from embryonic research. Mechanisms like compulsory licensing, exemplified during the COVID-19 pandemic, attempt to balance exclusive rights with urgent public needs, but these approaches have limitations. Despite the increasing importance of these concerns, internationally unified ethical guidelines for researchers, journal editors, and policymakers are lacking. We recommend the development of clearer ethical standards and practical frameworks to help stakeholders address the moral complexities of biomedical patents and to support responsible innovation and equitable access to life-saving technologies.

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