Originally published in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, November 1, 2012.
In a very important decision for the biotech industry, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently reaffirmed its holding that patent claims directed to isolated genes and a method that uses the genes to screen for breast cancer risk are patent eligible.
In contrast, claims directed to methods of analyzing or comparing a patient’s sequence of a BRCA1 gene or BRCA1 RNA with a wild-type sequence to reveal cancer predisposing mutations are patent ineligible (see Assn. for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a.k.a., ACLU v. Myriad Genetics).
Please see full publication below for more information.