Patents
A Dispassionate Look at Gene Patenting
31/08/10 14:50 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Duke Law School professor James Boyle argued that gene patents are necessary to spur biotech growth, and that opponents of gene patenting are arguing from a "moral" point of view, "protesting the hubris and in some eyes, heresy, of claiming to own the human genome." S. Pelech comments that it is rather late to get worked up about patenting genes, especially since the vast majority of gene sequence information has been generated at public expense. However, he also believes that the public funding of the human genome project may well have hurt the viability of many biotech companies and the industry, and this has delayed the translation of genomic information into practical applications. Read More...
Prometheus Struck Down by the Gods…
21/03/12 13:49 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Sabrina Richards in The Scientist reported that the US Supreme Court has overturned two methods patents on drug dose calibration held by biotech company Prometheus Laboratories. The Mayo Clinic claimed that the patents relied on natural phenomena, which are unpatentable, and the case went all the way to the US Supreme Court after the Federal District Court upheld the patents. S. Pelech comments that the US Supreme Court's ruling on the patentability of observations of natural phenomena like biomarkers seems pretty sensible for a myriad reasons, including the fact that their recognition come from acts of discovery as opposed to invention. Also with such an abundance of biomarkers, there could otherwise be a strong temptation to file a lot of ultimately useless patents that would really only benefit patent law firms. Read More...