Supreme court sets aside Myriad gene patent ruling

[muriel_volestrangler]

The Supreme Court set aside on Monday a ruling that Myriad Genetics Inc can patent two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancers, in a case closely watched by the biotechnology industry.

The justices set aside a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that Myriad has the right to patent two human genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, that account for most inherited forms of breast and ovarian cancers, and sent the matter back for more proceedings.

The Supreme Court ordered the further proceedings at the lower court in view of the high court's ruling last week in a case that raised similar issues and that held that companies cannot patent observations about a natural phenomenon.
...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/26/us-myriadgenetics-patent-idUSBRE82P0N220120326

[saras]

1. Good ruling, stupid patent

When the company creates a gene, base pair by base pair, from scratch, with reference ONLY to theory and NOT to existing genes, THEN and ONLY THEN do they deserve a patent for an invention.

[longship]

2. Patenting extant genes in nature is just wrong on so many levels

Good decision.