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Other criticism of intellectual property law concerns the tendency of the protections of intellectual property to expand, both in duration and in scope. The trend has been toward longer copyright protection[39] (raising fears that it may some day be eternal).

Patents have been granted for living organisms,[43] (and in the US, certain living organisms have been patentable for over a century)[44] and colors have been trademarked.[

The ethical problems brought up by intellectual property rights are most pertinent when it is socially valuable goods like life-saving medicines and genetically modified seeds that are given intellectual property protection. For example, pharmaceutical companies that produce, apply[clarification needed] intellectual property rights in order to prevent other companies from manufacturing their product without the additional cost of research and development. The application of intellectual property rights allow companies to charge higher than the marginal cost of production in order to recoup the costs of research and development.[50] However, this immediately excludes from the market anyone who cannot afford the cost of the product, in this case a life saving drug.