Overview
This database serves as a resource for policy makers and members of the general public interested in fields like genomics, genetics and biotechnology. The DNA Patent Database (DPD) contains a collection of DNA-based patents (1976- ) and patent applications (2001- ) issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and makes the full-text of such patents and applications available to users at no cost.
The production of this database is supported by grants from the ELSI programs of the National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH, and the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy. The DPD is a core of Duke University’s Center for Excellence in ELSI Research (CEER) project.
The DNA Patent Database is available free to individual researchers at dnapatents.georgetown.edu. Additional materials are available upon request from the Bioethics Research Library’s archival collection.
Project Resources and Presentations
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Guidelines for the Licensing of Genetic Inventions — 2006
- Nuffield Council on Bioethics. The Ethics of Patenting DNA — 2002
- SACGHS Oversight of Patents and Access study topic — 2006-2010
- GENE WARS, by Robert Cook-Deegan, full text PDF
- Genes, Patents, and Bioethics – Will History Repeat Itself?, Scope Note 39, by Susan Cartier Poland, J.D.
Historical Documents on Genetics and Public Policy
- Eugenics Record Office. BULLETIN No. 10 A: Report of the Committee to Study and to Report on the Best Practical Means of Cutting Off the Defective Germ-Plasm in the American Population. I. THE SCOPE OF THE COMMITTEE’S WORK, by HARRY H. LAUGHLIN, Secretary of the Committee, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, February, 1914.
- Eugenics Record Office. BULLETIN No. 10B: Report of the Committee to Study and to Report on the Best Practical Means of Cutting Off the Defective Germ-Plasm in the American Population. II. THE LEGAL, LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS OF STERILIZATION, by HARRY H. LAUGHLIN, Secretary of the Committee, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, February, 1914.
- EUGENICAL STERILIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES, by Harry H. Laughlin, full text PDF, size 6.5MB