University of Michigan: Proprietary Rights/norms of Science in Biotech Research

This article examines how the commercialization of scientific discoveries leads to conflict between proprietary rights to intellectual property, trade secrecy, and the maintenance of scientific norms. The first two inhibit the dissemination of information to the scientific community. Patent law, while it allows disclosure of a discovery, at the same time it delays the distribution of new knowledge. (Published in 1987)