Bridging the gap between bioethics and patent law
PatentsinHumans is a five-year interdisciplinary project funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting grant led by Professor Aisling McMahon, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University.
The five main types of patentable technologies related to the human body which will be examined during this project include:
Patentable technologies which treat the body
e.g. medicines, elements of vaccines etc
Patentable technologies which act on the body
e.g. elements of diagnostic tests
Patentable technologies that are in the body
e.g. isolated human genes
Patentable technologies that can be integrated with the body
e.g. elements of medical devices, prosthetics etc.
Patentable technologies that are akin to the human body or which can modify the body
e.g. neuro-technologies, gene editing techniques etc.
To learn more about the PatentsInHumans Project, please watch this short video from Principal Investigator, Professor Aisling McMahon.
Latest News:
PatentsInHumans Team Member, Lauren Kane, publishes a blog article in Ideas in ALL: High Priced Medicines, Intellectual Property Rights, and Access Barriers: Médicins Sans Frontières Report Calls for Better Access to Tuberculosis Medicines in Europe
Lauren Kane recently published a short piece on the Ideas in ALL blog, entitled: “High Priced...
PIH Researchers publish ALL Blog reflecting on their First International Intellectual Property Conference at EPIP 2025025
Congratulations to PatentsInHumans Researchers Lauren Kane and Sharon Adedapo who recently...
ERC PatentsInHumans Team Prof Aisling McMahon, Sharon Adedapo and Lauren Kane present research at the European Policy for Intellectual Property (EPIP) conference, University of Antwerp.
On 10-12 September 2025, ERC PatentsInHumans team members Prof Aisling McMahon (PI), Sharon...
Professor Aisling McMahon publishes article in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics examining intellectual property rights and global access to vaccines during pandemics examining vaccine nationalism and the recent World Health Organization’s Pandemic Agreement.
Professor Aisling McMahon has published an article entitled “Intellectual Property Rights and...
Welcome to Aislinn Fanning who joins the PatentsInHumans team as a Post Doctoral Researcher!
We are delighted to welcome Aislinn Fanning to the Patents and Humans Team! Aislinn joined the...
Professor Aisling McMahon publishes article examining the bioethical implications of patents on health-related technologies in Medical Law Review
Professor Aisling McMahon has published an article entitled “Patents over ‘technologies’ related...
Dr. Opeyemi Kolawole publishes an Ideas in ALL Blog: Proposed European Union Reforms to the Supplementary Protection Certificate Framework: Implications for Access to Medicines in the EU?
On 4 July 2025, the Ideas in ALL Blog published a blog post by Dr Opeyemi Kolawole, a postdoctoral...
Prof Aisling McMahon invited to speak at European Society of Human Reproduction & Embryology (ESHRE) Pre-Congress Course in Paris.
Prof Aisling McMahon was recently invited to speak at the European Society of Human Reproduction...
PatentsInHumans Member, Sharon Adedapo, publishes blog in relation to Intellectual Property Injunctions over Health-Related Technologies.
Sharon Adedapo (Research Assistant) recently published a short piece on the Ideas In ALL blog,...
PIH Team Member, Lauren Kane, publishes blog in relation to patents and the right to health.
Lauren Kane recently published a short piece on the Ideas in ALL blog, entitled; “30 Years of the...