When I was a little kid, having my own invention sounded like the coolest thing. Although I didn’t know the ownership of an invention is called a patent, I intuitively valued it. Now, with the stronger and stronger connection between science and industry, researchers and CEOs, and labs and companies, the alertness on patentability is higher than ever. Synthetic biology is a field that continuely challenges current patent laws. It would be too hard to summarize the entire argument. We will introduce you to the two most relevant aspects: Can you patent something you discover during iGEM? And what should you do if you want to use any patented parts for your design?

iGEM was started based on the idea of open science, which encourages better and free access to papers, research data and other resources. The ultimate purpose is to make it easier to publish and communicate scientific knowledge. With this appreciation for open science, involving in iGEM is like signing a contract for it. Since you agreed to give other people free access to your devices, data and even notebooks, you would not be able to patent the parts you designed for iGEM. However, you can further pursue your project afterwards in academia and most likely, when the method is ready to be industrialized, it will be way more advanced and different from your beginning point in iGEM. You will be able to patent it if desired.

Another common situation iGEMers in the past have run into is how to use a patented part. In 2008, the Stanford-Brown iGEM team had to face such situation. Frustrated by the confusing situation, they organized the information and published a report on patentability related to iGEM. Based on the report, and also from our experience, the most effective way to find out what you can and cannot do with a patented part is to read the claim part of a patent. This is the part where the owner states what the patent is for and what kind of application would be limited. If after reading the claim, you are still not sure what can be done or you realize what you want to do is limited, you should contact the owner. I recommend three databases here for research of patents: Google patent, USPTO Patent Full Text Database and Espacent.

At the same time, with the mission of open science, iGEM encourages students to think about the relationship between patentability and science development critically. Although patent gives scientists the motivation to create, it also limits accessibility of research data and establishes a physical barrier of information. For example, if two labs were working on the same thing, the ability to share all the data would double the efficiency and avoid having to take the wrong paths twice. The real question is how to balance the benefits versus the cost of patents.