Book Review : Graham Dutfield, Intellectual Property Rights and the Life Science Industries: Past, Present and Future, 2nd Ed. (World Scientific, 2009)

The pharmaceutical industry has greatly benefitted from using intellectual property law to optimize investment in pharmaceutical research and development. Graham Dutfield's book explores how that came to be, and what the future may hold for the continued co-evolution of life sciences, business and intellectual property regimes, especially patents. This work mainly discusses what it means to ‘invent’ in the life sciences, and how patent law in this area is shaped not only by economic interests, but also by highly contestable assumptions concerning life, science and the boundaries to be drawn between the natural and the human-made. Graham Dutfield's analysis is accessible, balanced, and concise. This volume is an appropriate and compelling read for a wide audience from different disciplinary and professional backgrounds