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

• Richard J. Gilbert
• Bronwyn Hall

Haas School of Business

• David C. Mowery
• David J. Teece
• Carl Shapiro

Boalt School of Law

• Peter S. Menell
• Robert P. Merges

Goldman School of Public Policy

• Suzanne A. Scotchmer

School of Information Management and Systems

• Hal R. Varian
• Pamela Samuelson

Department of Plant and Microbial Biology

• Peggy Lemaux

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