For those of you who are legal junkies, and you know who you are, the Patent Doc blog breaks down the major arguments presented by Myriad in its appeal of Judge Sweet's District Court decision to invalidate patents relating to BRCA 1&2 - ruling that isolated gene sequences was not patent eligible as it ran afoul of prohibitions on patenting "laws of nature".
Myriad makes a whole series of arguments attacking standing of plaintffs, jurisdictional decisions made by the District Court, as well as arguments on merit - including citations of the recent Bilski v. Kappos decision that came after the Myriad/University of Utah verdict.
What is not covered in this summary/analysis is the Government's [subsequent] decision to file an amicus brief that backs the notion that isolated DNA should not be patentable - in opposition to longstanding practice of the USPTO. The article notes the USPTO has issued 2,645 patents with claims to "isolated DNA." The Government's brief did back the Myriad position that manipulated DNA could be patentable.
There will be enough fun to go around for everyone on this one!
Posted by Bruce Lehr October 31st 2010.
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