Abstract
Traditionally, it is recognized that numerous patent of research tools would lead to “Tragedy of the Anticommons”, hindering the development of academic research . Recently, some articles, however, pointed out that patent by itself isn’t the real reason causing hindrance, but the access to biological material or unpublished result instead, and the extent of delay could grow increasingly. Consequently, this article analyzes the problem of research delay from the aspect of biological material transfer agreement, investigates why providers and recipients couldn’t reach a consensus, and sees how the law regards this kind of severe requirement. In this article, the second section briefly describes the definition, content and characteristic of biological material. The third section provides the history of biological material transfer, clauses of biological material transfer agreement, and the problems we’re facing nowadays. The forth section evaluates whether the requirement that provider asked would violate Civil Law or Patent Law, and discovers how these laws distribute rights under the condition without agreement. This part only focuses on the issue of property ownership. The fifth section inspects the problems that forth section left through the view of Fair Trade Law. Finally, the last section concludes that although Fair Trade Law could be the means to solve problems, the extent is limited and it costs excessive time due to complicated investigation of legal fact. Therefore, this article suggests that researchers should participate related activities or organization aiming to share, and promote share of material spontaneously, rather than rely on law. This also suggests that office of technology transfer, university and government need to establish some policies for promoting the flow of biological material.