Gene patents survive in the United States… for now
This is an Insight article, written by a selected partner as part of IAM's co-published content. Read more on Insight
The mid-Summer 2011 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Association for Molecular Pathology v United States Patent and Trademark Office (commonly referred to as ‘Myriad’) has helped to calm some of the ripples in the biotech industry created by the district court’s ruling the previous year. In a split decision (two to one), the appellate court panel determined that isolated genes were not “products of nature” and thus could be patented. However, the majority of the method claims directed to ways to use genes were rejected.
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