The Patent Doc blog outlines the arguments in the Intellectual Property Owners (IPO) Association's recent brief filed in support of Myriad Genetics. The brief asks the Supreme Court to affirm that isolated human DNA are patent-eligible.
The brief very pointedly calls out that we are not debating "human gene patenting" but whether an "specific sequence of isolated human DNA" is patent-eligible. Quite simply, IPO argues that it is as it passes the "hand of man" test established by the Court under Chakrabarty. Clearly, it is argued, the isolated DNA sequence is a product of human ingenuity, "having a distinctive name, character and use."
The brief also points out that despite claims to the contrary by those in opposition, there is no evidence that this patent has had any effect in slowing down the science aroudn the subject matter, brac1 and brac2 sequences. In fact, there are at least 10,652 references in the scientific literature to publications around these sequences. Moreover, the number of new publications is growing each year and have done so even after the patent issued.
You should read the whole discussion yourself which covers other aspects as well in rebuttal to Petitioners arguments. At the end of the blog post, it is revealed that one of the amicus brief's authors is Kevin Noonan of the Patent Docs blog. I must say the amicus brief is written a lot more coherently than the one submitted by Myriad's lawyers in the case.
Posted by Bruce Lehr Mar 22nd 2013.
