抄録
Life science is one of the important fields where development of the future innovation is expected. The 21st century is called "a century of the life". "4th Science and Technology Basic Plan" (Council for Science and Technology Policy) was established in August 2011. In this Basic Plan, "the promotion of the life innovation" is shown as one of the urgent issues. Now is the tenth year since "Basic Law for Intellectual Property" was introduced. For past ten years, the importance of the intellectual property strategy has been widely recognized in the technology management. However, there are still some unsolved issues in the intellectual property policy. This special edition is discussed mainly from a viewpoint of the intellectual property under the theme of "New Trend of Life Science Research". Five articles are included in this special edition. First three articles are discussed mainly from the viewpoint of the governmental policy such as the Science and Technology Policy (by Fukushi), the Industrial Policy (by Takehiro), the Intellectual Property Policy (by Kato). Next article is discussed mainly from the viewpoint of the intellectual property strategy in the industry (by Fujii), and final article is discussed mainly from the viewpoint of the life ethics (by Sumikura). Five articles are also discussed from a global viewpoint because the intellectual property has become global by some international frameworks such as TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), and TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership). It is expected that this special edition is helpful when "the promotion of the life innovation" is discussed for the future direction.
