Synbio Law Researcher to Speak at ERAsynbio Meeting

On November 26th 2013 coPI and steering committee member of the Center for Synthetic Biology's bioSYNergy initiative, Associate Professor Timo Minssen will give a talk on the legal challenges posed by synthetic biology. The talk entitled "Synthesizing the Law for Synthetic Biology? - An introduction to emerging legal challenges" will be given during a workshop on "Intellectual Property Issues in Synthetic Biology" organized by ERAsynbio and the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation.

ERAsynbio is a consortium of research funding and policy agencies that have come together through the European Commission (EC) funded European Research Area Network (ERA-NET). The ERAsynbio project has 16 partners from 14 European Countries, with observers in Europe and the US. ERAsynbio's main task is to discuss, evaluate, enhance, coordinate and organize the opportunities, challenges and risks of European and global  synthetic biology and to provide policy recommendations.

Specific info on the talk:

Synthesizing the Law for Synthetic Biology? - Emerging legal challenges

Abstract: Spurred by rapid scientific advances and the great promises of synthetic biology (SB), public and private investments in SB have increased dramatically. Meanwhile, numerous scientific, socio-economic, ethical and legal challenges posed by SB remain a multifaceted enigma. In patent law, for example, some stakeholders have warned for a 'perfect storm' - fuelled by an accumulation of problematic aspects of patent law's problem children, i.e. patents related to biotechnology and software. But also the evolving discussions on 'open biology' and standardization raise important questions. These and further legal issues related to intellectual property, licensing, risk-regulation and competition law require careful considerations and creative solutions. This presentation will provide a first introduction to some problematic aspects of this increasingly important area of science & law.