New Perspectives in Science Education

Intellectual Property (IP) rights are essential and very important in today's technology-driven world. In fact IP is directly related to the information, which contains in the objects themselves. In other words, the IP is the ownership of the information, which intellectual products contain themselves, and their creators and legal possessors have full ownership of them.

Bioinformatics in its nature refers to the intellectual, high-tech science section, where the results obtained largely depend on the development of the creative potential of scientists, but also influenced by technical support.  It is relatively new discipline that has gained much recognition in the past few years. Basically, bioinformatics is the convergence of analytical and computational tools with the discipline of biological research.

Scientific interest in the problems of Intellectual Property and its relation to the different parts of Bioinformatics in the digital realm takes an important research position in the last few years.

The article aims to describe the nature of bioinformatics and its relation to intellectual property. Bioinformatics is presented by its three main categories: first of all biological sequences such as DNA, RNA and protein sequences; second of all databases in which these sequences are organized; and third of all software and hardware designed to access, organize and analyze information contained within this sequences and databases. The article analyzes how these three categories of bioinformatics are related to the Patent and Utility Models Law, Copyright Law, Trade Marks and Geographical Indications Law and where protection may be available and practical.

The overview of the investigated problem is very important especially for the interdisciplinary character because it makes a bridge between the Bulgarian legislative system and Bioinformatics.