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.

Remarks on economic and political aspects of intellectual property in a networked economy.

Recorded on March 26, 2002.

Full title: Freedom in the Commons: Towards a Political Economy of Information.

Series: Meredith and Kip Frey Lecture in Intellectual Property 2nd.

Appearing: Katherine T. Bartlett and James Boyle, preliminary remarks; Yochai Benkler (New York University), speaker.