In a hotly contested case, the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously decided that some of Myriad Genetics’ patent claims were invalid for claiming products of nature. However, the Court also held that other Myriad patent claims were perfectly valid. In short, Myriad discovered the location and DNA sequence listing for two human genes that pertain to breast and ovarian cancer — i.e., it isolated the genes from the surrounding genetic material. This effort was considerable, and Myriad obtained a variety of patents on this discovery.
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Patenting Future Cures - or Not
Posted by: Raymond Van Dyke June 14, 2013 09:28 AMIn a hotly contested case, the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously decided that some of Myriad Genetics’ patent claims were invalid for claiming products of nature. However, the Court also held that other Myriad patent claims were perfectly valid. In short, Myriad discovered the location and DNA sequence listing for two human genes that pertain to breast and ovarian cancer — i.e., it isolated the genes from the surrounding genetic material. This effort was considerable, and Myriad obtained a variety of patents on this discovery.