Includes bibliographical references and index.

The invention of patents
The path from pure to commercial
A clash of two worlds
Why patents in academia?
Scientist-lawyers
Who owns the intangibles taken from your body?
Who owns the intangibles?
Quarreling colleagues
Patenting living things
Patenting genes
Patenting pureness
Enabling life
Microbes
Mosquitoes
Plants
Mammals
One size does not fit all
Controlled monopolies
The age of biologics
International access to patented biologics
Genetically modified crops
Tikkun olam
Foliar feeding

"Patenting Life: Tales from the Front Lines of Intellectual Property and the New Biology is a riveting first-person narrative informed by author Jorge Goldstein's lifelong work as a pioneering scientist-lawyer at the intersection of intellectual property law and biotechnology. Through multiple cases bridging law, business, and technology, Goldstein reveals how, over the last half century, biology went from pure science to being "monetized." Using his own experience and that of others, he tells stories of legal fights over patented microbes, virus resistant-crops, and ownership of body parts and the patents they engendered. Goldstein covers the early days of recombinant DNA science to the present, where thousands of companies worldwide have created what we know as modern biotechnology, as well as addresses the perceived downsides of the patent system"-- Provided by publisher.