December 5, 2011 by Ron Bouchard
Dr. Ron Bouchard is an Associate Professor in the Faculties of Law and of Medicine at the University of Manitoba, a CIHR New Investigator and an IP Osgoode Research Affiliate.
In Part 1, we learned that it is both possible and valuable to import empirical scientific methods typically used in the hard sciences to the study of law. In fact, in our analysis of patent law and policy we can move beyond patent valuation to assess how and indeed whether a given piece of law or policy is working in conjunction with its so-called original policy intent. This includes the assessment of innovation within the context of the patent bargain and whether governments that have accepted pharmaceutical linkage laws are being rewarded in their twin policy goals of producing more new and innovative drugs and facilitating timely generic entry. Using the new tools of empirical legal research, we hope to assess whether, as Senator Hatch put it at the time the U.S. legislation came into force, the public is in fact “receiving the best of both worlds – cheaper drugs today and better drugs tomorrow.”
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