Physicians as User Innovators

The patent systems in Europe, the United States and many other countries exempt medical treatment methods from patentability or shield physicians from the enforcement of such patents. While various policy reasons for such exceptions can be traced back decades and even centuries, today the exceptions are usually justified on ethical and moral grounds. This article describes the evolution of the medical treatment exception in Europe. It points to empirical evidence of medical progress in user innovation communities and considers how well the European experience supports an understanding of physicians as user innovators. The article describes the implications of this framing for patent policy