I am very happy and grateful to be awarded the British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for the 2024/5 academic year to pursue my research on the project “The Role of the State in Intellectual Property Law in Times of Industrial Policy”. The project aims to critically examine the perceived dichotomy between public and private interests that underpin the justification of patent law, taking into account insights from political economy and patent law history. It will delineate and query the relationship between patent law and various forms of state capitalism and degrees of state capture by private interests. The fellowship allows me to bring together my expertise in IP law, theory, and history with critical political economy.
The questions of the project arose as the balancing act between public and private interests, which often justifies IP law, did not work very well during the Covid-19 pandemic. We observed this in the cases of public financing of privately owned Covid-19 vaccine. Since the pandemic, there has been a significant turn towards national industrial policy without clearly spelling out the details of IP policy. Historically, IP law had always been closely intertwined with industrial development and international trade. As the global political economy changes, existing justifications of IP law ought to be revisited, reconsidered – and if necessary, rearticulated.
The BA fellowship will enable me to devote myself to do these questions, and specifically think about the role of the state and its duty to protect public interest. I am very grateful to the British Academy for giving me time and resources to conduct this research and also to the Warwick Law School research team and Head of School for all their support.
Hyo Yoon Kang 