Federal court rules human genes can be patented

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Story
By Eric W. Dolan

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in a 2 to 1 decision Friday that human genes can be patented because the DNA extracted from cells is not a product of nature.

The court held (PDF) that Myriad Genetics can patent two human genes used to predict the risk of breast and ovarian cancer in women, overturning a previous decision by a federal district court in March 2010. But the court ruled that the method used to determine a patient's risk of cancer was not patentable.

The lawsuit, Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, et al., was filed in May 2009 on behalf of researchers, women patients, cancer survivors and scientific associations against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation, which hold the patents on the genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2.

The lawsuit was filed by the Public Patent Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, who claimed patents on human genes violate the First Amendment and patent law because genes are "products of nature."

More at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/01/federal-court-rules-human-genes-can-be-patented/

[villager]

1. DNA isn't a product of nature!? The fucking courts become increasingly useless with each decision

...rendered...

[Mimosa]

2. SPLICERS is for real.

UH OH.

[LonePirate]

3. If DNA extracted from cells is not a product of nature, then what is it?

Please tell me those two deciding judges aren't Democrats!

Hopefully this is appealed to the Supreme Court as this decision needs to be overruled, even if the Supreme Court stands little chance of doing so.

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. Can this be appealed to the Supreme Court?

[BattyDem]

5. How did these geniuses come to the conclusion that DNA was not a product of nature?!?

:wtf:

On edit: Yes, I read the article, but the logic is so twisted that I don't understand how anyone who took a 5th grade science class could possibly think that it's not a product of nature! Did someone create it? Did someone put it in the cells? No ... it was simply there waiting to be discovered and extracted. How can you patent something you didn't invent? How can you patent something that everyone is born with?

[Angry Dragon]

6. stupidity runs rampant through the courts

I guess it is true ...... corporations now own people and all their cells

[Leopolds Ghost]

7. What corporations really own is logic. By controlling the media they can reshape what people believe

Two legs good four legs bad.

[JCMach1]

8. Good, I can patent my own DNA and if they use it against me in court, I can sue for patent

infringement.

Keep off my intellectual property asswipes!

:sarcasm:

[GeorgeGist]

9. Idiots are US

[elleng]

10. Have to read the decision.

http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/images/stories/opinions-orders/10-1406.pdf