U.S. Court Upholds Status Quo on Gene Patents

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http://www.nationofchange.org/us-court-upholds-status-quo-gene-patents-1345387919


Is a gene more like a tree trunk or more like a baseball bat? A federal court Thursday took a stand on the question, ruling that isolated DNA molecules are “not found in nature”, and are therefore more like inventions, such as baseball bats, than natural phenomenon, such as tree trunks.

Using language steeped in metaphor in a packed U.S. federal courtroom, attorneys in July debated the question in a closely-watched case on the right to patent genes that has been working its way through the courts.

At stake: the right of one company – Myriad Genetics – to patent a gene as a human invention under U.S. patent law, which allows patents on inventions but not on products of nature.

In a ruling that largely upheld the status quo in a biotech industry that has been patenting genes for decades, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Thursday that “isolated” human genes are patentable. Methods of “comparing” or “analyzing” DNA sequences are, however, not patent eligible, it ruled.