A Consortium for Enhanced Access to Patented Research Tools: Japanese Policy and Proposal of a Novel Scheme

Currently, in Japan and other developed countries, massive amounts of research funds, including government funds, are being poured into basic research conducted by universities and public research institutions in the area of life science. From such academic research, a number of innovations ultimately leading to the development of new medicines are attained. However, the existence of patents for research tools can result in impeding the promotion of academic research, making it necessary to form a proper measure. As such a measure, this paper considers the establishment of a patent distribution mechanism whereby patented inventions are gathered and managed by a single organization to facilitate the conclusion of license agreements for individual technologies. The results of our survey of life science researchers show that there is a substantial need among these researchers for such a mechanism. The same survey also found that many researchers hope for a mechanism based on the principle of reciprocity. Under this mechanism, a researcher offering his or her own patented invention for free would be entitled to use patented inventions of other researchers for free. Using the results of this survey as a reference, this paper considers specific aspects of a research tool consortium.