MDI Special Article

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Coping with change: Intellectual property rights, new legislation, and the Human Mutation Database Initiative

  1. Stephen M. Maurer*

Article first published online: 27 DEC 1999

DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1098-1004(200001)15:1<22::AID-HUMU7>3.0.CO;2-Q

Issue

Human Mutation

Human Mutation

Special Issue: The HUGO Mutation Database Initiative: Issues, Databases, and Perspectives for the New Millennium

Volume 15, Issue 1, pages 22–29, January 2000

Additional Information

How to Cite

Maurer, S. M. (2000), Coping with change: Intellectual property rights, new legislation, and the Human Mutation Database Initiative. Human Mutation, 15: 22–29. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1098-1004(200001)15:1<22::AID-HUMU7>3.0.CO;2-Q

Author Information

  1. Attorney at Law, Berkeley, California

*Attorney at Law, 2632 Hilgard St., Berkeley, CA 94709

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 27 DEC 1999
  2. Article first published online: 27 DEC 1999

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Keywords:

  • MDI;
  • intellectual property;
  • copyright;
  • bioinformatics;
  • legal;
  • mutation database

Abstract

In 1996, the European Union issued a directive requiring member states to protect databases against unauthorized copying. Similar legislation is currently being considered and will probably be enacted in the US. Such database legislation 1) will almost certainly increase existing pressures on human mutation databases to commercialize, and 2) could inadvertently make human mutation data harder to acquire and use. Strategies for minimizing these difficulties are discussed. Alternatively, a nonprofit, community-wide “depository” could probably support itself by selling sophisticated bioinformatic products to the private sector. The proposed depository would offer substantially similar databases to academic and government users at little or no cost. Hum Mutat 15:22–29, 2000. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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