Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) permits the analysis of millions of genetic variants at a time and has proven to be invaluable for the development of personalized or precision medicine. Analysis of whole genomes is providing...more
Late last year, the USPTO issued its modified and revised 2014 Interim Guidance on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility (Interim Guidance) to assist patent examiners and the public in determining if a claim presented for...more
Just last week, the USPTO released its revised subject matter eligibility guidance (2014 Interim Guidance on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility “Interim Guidance” reviewed in my prior post of December 16th, 2014). The Interim...more
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent trilogy of patent-eligibility decisions (Prometheus, Myriad and Alice) have called into question the validity of many U.S. patents on diagnostic medical methods. Nevertheless, legal battles...more
Canada has joined the gene patenting debate. Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (“Children’s”) sued the University of Utah Research Foundation, Genzyme Genetics, and Yale University (“Defendants”) in Canada’s Federal...more
On Monday October 6th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will entertain oral argument in another case involving Myriad’s BRCA1/BRCA2 diagnostic tests. In re BRCA1- and BRCA2- Based Hereditary Cancer Test...more
Next generation sequencing (NGS) promises to transform the delivery of health care by providing in one test diagnostic and prognostic information that had previously only been available in multiple analyses. One application...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, relying on U.S. Supreme Court patent-eligibility precedent, held that a claim to a live-born clone of a pre-existing, non-embryonic, donor mammal is not patent-eligible. The...more
Today, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued a Guidance, advising examiners and the public of the factors for determining whether an invention satisfies the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of 35...more
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (“USPSTF”) recently issued a report regarding the effectiveness of BRCA1/BRCA2 genetic tests for women and within the report, issued recommendations for preventive screening for women...more
In one of the first district court decisions applying the U.S. Supreme Court’s new Myriad patent-eligibility standard, the Northern District of California held that diagnostic claims containing only conventional and existing...more
As reported in my July 8, 2013 post, Consumer Watchdog (formerly known as The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights) and the Public Patent Foundation (collectively “CW”) asked the Federal Circuit to determine if in...more
In a July 12, 2013 letter to Dr. Francis S. Collins of the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”), Senator Patrick J. Leahy urged the NIH to exercise its march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act to directly license the genetic...more