Overview
The role of intellectual property rights has become a key issue in agricultural and resource economics over the past two decades. The changes in biotechnology and intellectual property protection that have occurred since 1980 make private enterprise possible for the first time in many broad research areas in agriculture and the health sciences. Furthermore, universities, cooperatives and other public and non-profit institutions now have the option of licensing or selling research outputs in this area, rather than giving their results away for free. As the scope and power of IPRs in biotechnology has grown, their international reach has expanded. These developments raise many fascinating and important issues: optimal patent design and licensing; the implications of IPRs under cumulative innovation, typical of agriculture and biotechnology; the effects of the TRIPS agreement on developing countries; the effects of IPRs on monopolization of key sectors; and the optimal way to ensure that the poor of the world have access to pharmaceutical products including AIDS drugs. Berkeley is the acknowledged world leader in academic IPR expertise, and relevant graduate courses in the department are complemented by others in economics, business and law.
Courses
Agricultural and Resource Economics
ARE 241: Economics of Production, Technology, & Risk with Application in Agriculture
Prof. David Zilberman
Economics Department
ECON 220A: Industrial Organization
Prof. Richard Gilbert
ECON 222/BUS AD 297T-1: Seminar on Innovation
Prof. Bronwyn Hall
School of Law
275.3: Intro to Intellectual Property
Prof. Robert P. Merges
275.65: International Intellectual Property
Prof. Amy Kapczynski
275.7: Intellectual Property Scholarship Seminar
Prof. Molly S. Van Houweling
277.2: Patent Litigation
Prof. Robert P. Merges
278.1: Trademarks
Prof. Kathryn J. Fritz
Goldman School of Public Policy
Public Policy 190/290: Cyberlife
Prof. Suzanne Scotchmer and Prof. Stephen Maurer
Economics 124/Public Policy 190-5/290-5: Economics of Innovation
Prof. Browyn Hall and Prof. Suzanne Scotchmer
School of Information Management and Systems
MBA 290C.1/EECS 201/IS 224/E 298A: Strategic Computing and Communications Technology
Prof. David Messerschmitt/Prof. Carl Sharpiro
Department of Environmental Science and Plant Management
ESPM 192: Molecular Approaches to Environmental Problem Solving
Prof. Steve Lindow
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology
PMB 170: Modern Applications of Plant Biotechnology
Faculty
 |
Gordon C. Rausser Fields: Critical role of intellectual property rights in agricultural biotechnology, and general public science and technology policy. |
 |
Brian Wright Fields: Economics of conservation and evaluation of genetic resources, economics of patents and licensing, patenting of research inputs, effects of IPR on non-profit users of biotech, effects of IPR on industrial structure in agricultural inputs and on the agricultural sector as a whole. |
 |
David Zilberman Fields: Innovation and IPR. Issues include: clearing house to IPR; technology transfer from university to private sector; marketing activities and technology adoption. |
Economics Department
Haas School of Business
Boalt School of Law
Goldman School of Public Policy
School of Information Management and Systems
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology
Past Student Placements
| 2011 | Kyriakos Drivas | Postdoctoral Researcher | Department of Agriculture and Economics | University of California, Berkeley |
| 2009 | Zhen Lei | Assistant Professor | Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering | Pennsylvania State University |
| 2003 | Greg Graff | Director of Research | Research | Bio-Economic Research Associates, Cambridge, MA |