Part 1: The symposium focuses on cases where proprietary rights on research inputs are posing, or may imminently pose, obstacles to biopharmaceutical R & D. Many of these cases involve diseases that have limited market potential, either because the affected population is poor or because it is small. Hence the need to reduce costs related to licensing, as well as other R & D costs, is particularly acute. These concerns may especially affect genomic innovation, where the ability to "invent around" building blocks of knowledge may be limited.