Justice Questions Patentability of Diagnostics Based on DNA

Potentially undermining decades of intellectual patent law precedent, the Justice Department has told a federal appeals court it agrees with a lower court’s ruling that isolated DNA within human genes is not patentable, a move that could impact diagnostic companies. Justice’s filing is in regards to a March district court ruling that certain patent claims on Myriad Genetics’ breast and ovarian cancer screening system, BRACAnalysis, are invalid. In that case, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held that isolated DNA within genes occurs naturally and is therefore not patentable.
Devices & Diagnostics