Are Intellectual Property Rights Hindering Technological Advance? The Need for Technological Common.

In the last quarter century, the scope of patenting has been expanded, the requirements for patentability
have been lowered, the experimental use exemption has been narrowed, and patent holders’ rights have
been strengthened. New actors, most notably universities, have become involved. These changes threaten
technological advance by hindering the emergence and utilization of design spaces, understood as
metaphorical toolboxes shared by professions and comprised of basic elements and their relations routinely
used for problem solving. While abstract, broad, and low-quality intellectual property per se constitutes
a problem, it is particularly so when it comes to a design space, in the context of which knowledge has to
be accessed in bundles, and large domains of further inquiry are at stake. The article calls for action in
securing technological commons that, at least historically, have been provided via publicly funded
research at universities and elsewhere.
KEY WORDS: design space, intellectual property, science and technology policy, university patenting,
technological development

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