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McGill Centre for Intellectual Property Policy wins $3 million Grant, McGill University Press Release, December 3, 2003

The Executive Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy (CIPP), Elisa Henry-Bertrand, announced that the Centre has just received one of the most significant grants ever awarded to legal researchers by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The grant will permit researchers at the CIPP to critical examine and suggest reform to patent regimes and licensing practices related to health and agricultural biotechnology.

This new research centre, hosted by McGill Faculty of Law and directed by Prof. Richard Gold, brings researchers from across Canada in numerous academic disciplines and from the research, policy and governmental communities together with experts in intellectual property from around the globe. Henry-Bertrand stated today: "The CIPP represents a Canadian-led world first in the study of intellectual property by bringing together experts from across the country and across the globe. Frankly, we have been astounded by the high level of interest in the Centre from world-leading academics, researchers and policy-makers."

The 3 million dollar grant provided by SSHRC funds a critically important project led by Dr Gold aimed at assisting researchers and policy-makers in Canada and beyond in formulating IPR policy in respect of biotechnological innovation. Timothy Caulfied, Research Director of the Health Law Institute and partner on the grant said the following today: "This project brings together the knowledge and expertise of researchers from the health and agricultural communities to bear on a problem that has so far been the sole domain of the 'experts.' The research thus acts as an important bridge that will lead to important insights into health and agricultural innovation systems."

The Centre's research will provide policy-makers, researchers, non-governmental organisations and members of the business community with important insight into the functioning of IPR regimes in the biotechnology field. As Henry-Bertrand explains: "Policy-makers and researchers have been using IPR regimes developed over a century ago to solve the particular policy and social dilemmas posed by biotechnological innovation. As the international debate over access to medicines illustrates, these old regimes need to be examined and critically analysed. This project will provide positive criticism of existing IPR regimes and expand the horizon of policy-makers by proposing additional ways of conceiving IPR regimes in the biotechnology field."

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