Legal mechanisms for taking into account the principles of bioethics in the intellectual property

Abstract

With the intensive spread of biotechnologies in recent years, there is an increasing need to specify and take into account the principles of bioethics in the regulation of various legal relations, including those that go beyond traditional areas such as supervision and control of biological research. Thus, the fourth part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation establishes prohibitions on patenting and other state registration of intellectual property results that contradict public interests, principles of humanity and morality. But these principles are not specified in the legislation. At the same time, specifying and taking into account the principles of bioethics in civil law relations, including in the field of intellectual property, seems necessary in order to form a comprehensive intersectoral system of balancing the advantages and risks of new biotechnologies, in particular, preventing the use of legal mechanisms for the protection of intellectual property in violation of moral requirements. 

Based on the results of a comprehensive analysis of doctrinal and normative legal sources, the author comes to the conclusion that the list of bioethical principles to be taken into account in the legal system, in conditions of intensive development of biotechnologies and other scientific achievements, cannot be static, but is constantly expanding and changing, which must be taken into account when determining the rules of legal regulation. Moreover, it must be assumed that there is currently no universally recognized unified system of bioethical principles that could be applied as a basic model for accounting in intellectual property law. Taking into account the above, the author proposes a multilevel and intersectoral system of legal mechanisms for situational accounting of bioethics principles (both existing and those that may arise in the future) in the field of intellectual property.

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