Is there a line of demarcation between natural and invented DNA? The US Supreme Court decided that human genes may not be patented.
One of the most important and complex patent cases has just come to an end. The U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the States, recently heard an extremely difficult biotech case: Assoc. for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc ., No. 12-398, June 13, 2013 (hereafter 'Op.'). Its ruling is expected to have broad implications, not only in the U.S. but worldwide. The central question is: whether human genes could be patented? Put in a simple way: how genes, the basis for hereditary traits in living organisms, could become a company’s intellectual property; and who owns the gene? In particular in the field of medicine, modern biotechnology is one of the key technologies of the 21st century, a major source of innovation and a global driver of economic growth. With annual net sales exceeding $90 billion, it's easy to understand the paramount importance of biopharmaceuticals to the pharmaceutical industry today. With all these new technologies, scien...