On March 6, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) authorized, with special controls, the first direct-to-consumer test to detect the presence of genetic mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes (“BRCA genes”). ...more
Last month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued further guidance for determining subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101. In addition to a memorandum on subject matter eligibility determinations that was...more
The United States Patent And Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a memorandum on May 4, 2016 (May 2016 Memo) to the Patent Examining Corps to provide further Examiner instructions relating to subject matter eligibility under 35...more
The collective experience of the Members of the Coalition for 21st Century Medicine in trying to obtain much needed patent protection for their novel, life-saving technologies has led to one inescapable conclusion: It is...more
Like the United States Supreme Court, the High Court of Australia has determined that Myriad’s patents directed to purified and isolated DNA molecules encoding the BRCA genes are unpatentable. Indeed, the Australian Court...more
The High Court of Australia today heard the long anticipated appeal from the unanimous decision of a 5-judge bench of the Full Federal Court to allow Myriad's claims to isolated nucleic acids. The question before the...more
In 2009, the first edition of Dr. David Koepsell's book "Who Owns You: The Corporate Gold Rush to Patent Your Genes" was published. With the second edition of his text about to be published, Dr. Koepsell allowed Patent Docs...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
Last year in AMP v Myriad Genetics, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that isolated, naturally occuring DNA are not patent eligible, which caused considerable consternation in the biotech community. However, this does not...more
A five-judge bench of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia (Full Court) has today unanimously decided that Myriad Genetics Inc's (Myriad) patent covering the isolated BRCA1 gene (Patent) is patentable subject...more
In a decision issued March 10, 2014, Judge Shelby of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah denied Myriad’s motion for a preliminary injunction against Ambry Genetics Corp. While Ambry had challenged the validity of...more
Fritz Machlup, an economist, once said that if we didn't have a patent system it would be irresponsible to recommend one, but since we have one, it would be irresponsible to abolish it. An Economic Review of the Patent...more
After a brief hiatus that saw Counsyl and Quest Diagnostics file declaratory judgment actions in alternate venues, Myriad has filed yet another lawsuit against a genetic diagnostics company that brought its own BRCA gene...more
Earlier this month, Myriad Genetics filed patent infringement lawsuits against Ambry Genetics (on July 9th) and Gene-by-Gene (on July 10th). Filed with the complaint in the Ambry lawsuit was a Motion for Preliminary...more
On June 13, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling in Association for Molecular Pathology et. al. v. Myriad Genetics, the outcome of which was considered crucial in the development of genetic research....more
A naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated, but cDNA is patent eligible because it is not naturally occurring....more