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Court Ruling Doesn’t Resolve Battle Over Patents on Breast-Cancer Genes

August 1, 2011, 2:34 pm

The latest court ruling on legal rights to the human genes known BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are associated with increased risks of breast and ovarian cancer, appears to have only confused the issue. In a split decision on Friday, a three-judge federal-appeals-court panel agreed that Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation, holders of patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2, do have the right to hold patents on genes. But the judges found that the specific methods used by Myriad to test women for cancer were not patentable. The patents are being fought by groups representing both women with cancer and academic researchers who foresee obstacles to their work with the genes.

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  • cwinton

    Patents are for something you create, not something you discover.  I can see patenting some process for producing a treatment based on the genes or for identifying the genes, but not the genes themselves.  Patenting genes strikes me as being akin to patenting the discovery of fire; i.e., on the face of it I think the courts have it wrong. 

  • jchildre

    Does that ruling seem backwards to anyone else?  How do you patent a gene?  But I can definitely see placing a patent on a method of testing something.  Did they mix up the rulings in this article?

  • stevesarakuhn

    I agree with these two posts.  Could the gene(s) for left-handedness or eye color be patented?  I could see patenting the method of testing– the company did create that– but the gene itself?  I don’t understand.

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