The impact of intellectual property (IP) rights, such as patents, on scientific growth has been a topic of vigorous debate over recent decades. While most research has focused on the restrictive effects of patents on research inputs, the potential incentives provided by patenting research outputs are less explored. In this study, we take advantage of a policy shift in the patentability of genomic compounds as a natural experiment to explore both roles and their separate impacts on scientific research. Specifically, we conduct two separate natural experiments using the same policy shift: one examining DNA as a research material and the other considering DNA as a field of study with patentable outputs. Our findings reveal no evidence that patents restrict scientific research; instead, we find strong evidence that the incentivizing role of patents significantly impacts the rate of scientific publications. These results hold across academic and corporate environments and provide a nuanced perspective with important policy implications regarding the relationship between intellectual property rights and scientific advancement.
