مدیریت مالکیت معنوی اطلاعات توالی زیستی از دیدگاه جستجوی ثبت اختراع

With recent advances in biotech research tools, the use of biosequence information has greatly facilitated the R&D process in the pharmaceutical and other life sciences industries. Concurrently, it has presented substantial challenges in the management of biosequence related intellectual property, due to the dramatic increase in the amount of sequence data, the nature of claims on sequences as well as limitations in available database resources for sequence analysis and searches. This paper discusses some of these challenges in-depth, and suggests ways to alleviate difficulties associated with conducting sequence-based patent information searches.

The sequencing of the human genome and genomes of other organisms offers an unprecedented opportunity for advances in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, medical and chemical industries. However, this opportunity is accompanied by significant challenges in the management of sequence related intellectual property, for example, in the patent information searching or in protecting inventions based on sequence information due to the following drawbacks: (1) Atypical and/or broad-scope detailed claims made on sequences in issued patents and published patent applications as described by Sheiness [1]. (2) Limitations in the functionality of commonly used sequence analysis tools in the context of patent searches. (3) Inconsistent and incomplete indexing of sequence data in patent and non-patent sequence databases. This review attempts to identify the problems that underlie overall sequence analysis process, such as the selection of answers from sequence analysis results for different legal contexts, and limitations of sequence analysis tools and databases. In addition, we describe approaches to alleviate such problems in conducting different types of legally significant searches related to sequence information.