• Findings from a study of stem cell researchers suggesting that those who patent the most, collaborate the least, based on a study of measures of success.
• The reasons for the breakdown of negotiations between a US company, which had patented human genes for breast and ovarian cancer, and Canadian health authorities. A case study reveals that talks with Canada were in crisis after Myriad delivered threatening letters to the Ontario Minister of Health from US Senator Orin Hatch and from the US Ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci.
• Evidence based on a Brazilian case study that ensuring property rights to indigenous practices and knowledge has served as a significant barrier to research in Brazil and has not furthered the interests of the country"s traditional communities.
• Revelations from participants in discussions of Canada"s legislation to allow emerging markets to produce drugs for poor countries—known as the Access to Medicines Regime. They said privately that they knew the regime would not work by the end of the negotiations, yet they publicly applauded it.

NGOs in Brazil help communities sue researchers and companies that use indigenous knowledge without consent, but no one is present to help communities change the legislation or enter into agreements with those same companies in advance, so that everyone can benefit. This leaves behind a culture of mistrust. The NGOs and local community leaders often distrust industry and are therefore reluctant to negotiate. On the other hand, researchers and industry feel so overburdened by a maze of unworkable rules and procedures that they trust neither the government nor the local communities. - Maristela Basso, associate professor of international law at the University of Sao Paul School of Law.

The end of our old way of doing business does not mean we don"t need a system for protecting intellectual knowledge. We need an IP system that will support collaborations among researchers and partners in industry and academia worldwide so that knowledge gets to those who need it most. This means the laws may have to be changed, but more importantly, it means that we have a lot of work to do to change behaviors and build trust among all the players. How people behave – in other words, their practices – and the effect of practices on innovation is critical. Public and private institutions – patent offices, courts, universities, governments, corporations and industry groups – that manage, award, review and hold intellectual property also play an essential role in shaping the IP system. - Professor Gold

• Seek other ways to encourage innovation—not just through IP, but through health and environmental regulations, the judicial system and tax rules, for instance.[
• Work with industry to help create respected and trusted entities whose members that can be counted on to mediate disputes fairly and encourage indigenous and local communities in policy development
• Develop Public-Private Partnerships to conduct early stage research including through the sharing of health related data to allow the sharing of risk across industry.

• Collect standardized patent-related information, including license data as they are doing in Japan
• Assist developing countries and NGOs in finding out which patents exist in order to enable licensing

• Establish an independent, non-profit technology assessment organization to evaluate new biotechnology products from developing countries
• Participate actively in the creation of Public-Private Partnerships and other collaborative mechanisms
• Be transparent about patent holdings
• Develop new business models that promote partnerships and collaborations

• Develop clear principles relating to the use and dissemination of intellectual property and promote greater access and broad licensing
• Develop measures of the success of transfer of technology based on social returns rather than on the number of patents hold
• Enter into collaborations between developed and developing countries to ensure that developing country doctoral and post-doctoral students have opportunities to study and work at home.