Brad Sherman is ARC Laureate Fellow and Professor at the University of Queensland and a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology. His earlier books include Intellectual Property and the Design of Nature (edited with Jose Bellido, 2023), Figures of Invention (with Alain Pottage, 2010), The Making of Modern Intellectual Property Law (with Lionel Bently, 2000), and Of Author and Origins: Essays on Copyright Law (edited with Alain Strowel,1994).

1. Introduction; 2. An impure law; 3. Informed Subject Matter; 4. Speculative property; 5. Intangible machines; 6. A hybrid subject matter; 7. Fabian patents; 8. Bio-legal subject matter 9. Molecular subject matter; 10. Postgenomic subject matter; 11. Conclusion.

Placing debates on the dematerialisation of subject matter in a historical context, the book explores patentable subject matter in the United States and how law, science, and technology interact. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.