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Patently Obvious: Why The District Court's Ruling In Association For Molecular Pathology V. Uspto Is Incomplete, Kristin Wall

Kristin Wall

In March of 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Southern District of New York invalidated Myriad Genetics’ patents on the BRCA1/2 genes, which predict susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancer. Prior to this decision, the USPTO and the legal system at large accepted patents relating to human genes as patentable subject matter. In opposition to this standard, the District Court found that human DNA sequences are inherently products of nature and thus fail under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

The Court should not have stopped there, however. The Intellectual Property Clause of the U.S. Constitution creates a standard …