US Court Ruling Casts Gene Patenting Into Doubt

A New York federal court ruled yesterday that patents on genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer are invalid, in the first time a court decided that patents on genes are unlawful, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation represented a group of patients and scientists in the lawsuit brought to court in May 2009 against Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation, which hold the patents on the BRCA genes. The lawsuit was also brought against the US Patent and Trademark Office (IPW, Biodiversity/Genetic Resources/Biotech, 2 September 2009).

The ruling [pdf] is a victory for the free flow of ideas in scientific research,” said Chris Hansen, staff attorney with ACLU, in a release. The court granted the USPTO’s request to be released as a defendant in the lawsuit since the court decided that because of the favourable ruling in favour of the plaintiff, there was no need to reach the First Amendment claims against the office.

The outcome of the ruling could have “far reaching impact,” according to ACLU, since the grounds of the lawsuit was the notion of patents on human genes.

In February, a US health department advisory group released recommendations unfavourable to patents on genes in the US, presenting them as negatively impacting patients’ access to genetic tests (IPW, Biodiversity/Genetic Resources/Biotech, 10 February 2010).