Intellectual property rights, future

It is important to establish and agree on ownership of laboratory specimens, X rays, and medical records on who is to store them and for how long and on who may have access to them in the future. It may be desirable for the voucher agency to retain intellectual property rights of all data for all studies and publications. Patient confidentiality must be respected at all times, but the voucher agency may want to request access to medical records for supervision or study purposes. If the voucher scheme incorporates a research component involving human subjects, it is essential to obtain approval from the appropriate bodies and, if necessary, informed consent from the patients. 

There are as yet no commercial sales of elastic and plastic protein-based polymers, but recent progress in correcting relevant intellectual property rights by the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office will hopefully allow for commercial uses in the near future. Thus, the applications noted below must yet be seen in terms of potential rather than as realized utility. 

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