Law Commons^™

Patent Rights In The Human Genome Project, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Book Chapters

The various research efforts that comprise the Human Genome Project will inevitably both draw on and yield a multitude of patentable inventions. The broad subject matter of the patent laws potentially reaches every phase of the Genome Project, from the discovery of new research technologies, such as techniques and equipment for DNA sequencing, through the ultimate development of new products, such as screening tests for genetically transmitted diseases. Even bits and pieces of the human genome itself may be, and sometimes have been, patented.' Nor does the fact that the public is paying for the Genome Project through federal funding …