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'''Rapidly Growing Industries''': The biotechnology industry as a whole provides new ethical challenges to the patent system and introduces new competitive threats such as me-too drugs. Me-too drugs are approved after pioneering drugs to function as substitute products [http://www.who.int/intellectualproperty/topics/ip/Me-tooDrugs_Hollis1.pdf]. Limiting the scope of discoveries that can be patented in biotechnology is an ongoing issue. The DOJ's declaration that genes may not be patented in a case dealing with Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation resulted in sharp public criticism in 2010. [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/health/02gene.html?_r=0] The Biotech industry along with others such as e-commerce or computer software face the challenge of overcoming overlapping patents that could result in many separate patent infringements. [http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/thicket.pdf]
'''Right to Exclude''': The current patent system allows companies to file for the right to exclude if they have a novel, non-obvious invention. The right to exclude creates a temporary monopoly for a certain product, creating the potential for higher prices for consumers. Daraprim, a drug produced by Turing Pharmaceuticals, was at one point in time priced at $750 per pill for commercial sale.The CEO OF Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli, led the charge to such an exorbitant price hike, earning himself the title of "Most Hated Man in America." <ref name="BBC">
Critics of the current patent system also believe it does not incentivize enough research and development for drugs that benefit society as a whole. [http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-05-28/news/31877151_1_drug-prices-intellectual-property-innovation (Economic Times)]
==Patent Pools==
