On 11th September, Prof Aisling McMahon (PI PatentsInHumans) and Dr Opeyemi Kolawole presented a co-authored paper developed as part of the European Research Council funded PatentsInHumans project at the ‘European Policy for Intellectual Property’ (EPIP) conference (11th-13th September) which took place at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa), in co-operation with the University of Pisa, Italy. The EPIP conference theme this year was “Intellectual property and the future of the data economy” and a full conference programme is available here
Prof Aisling McMahon and Dr Opeyemi Kolawoles’s paper was entitled “Intellectual Property Rights and Control over the Repair of Medical Devices: Autonomy, Sustainability and the Need (and Challenges) for a Regulated Right to Repair for Medical Devices?” It examined the potential impact of intellectual property rights, particularly patents and copyrights on access and provision of repair services and parts for medical devices. It then looked at the development of the right to repair in other contexts, and put forward the case for the need for a regulated right to repair in the medical device context with particular reference to the bioethical interests at stake.
The ‘European Policy for Intellectual Property’ (EPIP) is a leading international interdisciplinary organisation which provides a platform for the discussion of intellectual property systems.
You can find out more about the PatentsInHumans project at: www.patentsinhumans.eu