A worldview of word associations:

Property

Intellectual Property

Locke

Hegel

Bentham

Adam Smith

Inventors

The Constitution

Branches of Government

Sources of Law

USPTO

Patents

Copyrights

Trademarks

Trade Secrets

Economics – Monopolies – Constitutional Bargain

Inequalities – Structural Inequalities

Engineers – Ethics, Facts and Opinions

Entities

APPLY THEM – USE THEM – WORK WITH THEM

1.  What can be patented:  define it.  What can not be patented?

2. Can “nature” be patented? Explain.  Biological patents

3. What problems are represented in this example of “science” by Thomas Jefferson“?

4. How is your relationship with Henrietta Lacks? HeLa; Should cells have a guardian? Family legacy?

5. Should you be able to patent a human gene? More info a la PBS.

6. Example of the US Supreme Court’s intersection with patents – Oyez

7. If you are at an ice cream social, and a colleague tells you they have met someone who seems to be genetically incapable to the following:  mean, selfish, prejudice and bias.  Your bio-engineer friend explains she took a snippet of hair, and isolated the gene for these valuable traits.  She believes that the gene can help the planet get past all the nastiness we suffer.  Can she get a patent?  Should she?  How many of the words in the worldview association might be of use in explaining this all to her and yourself?