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Category: Patentable Subject Matter
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By Kevin E. Noonan — With great fanfare (if not braggadocio), researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park have published a paper in Genome Biology that purports to provide the means for individuals to assess their risk for breast or ovarian cancer despite patenting of isolated human BRCA1 and BRCA 2 genes by the…
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By James DeGiulio — On July 27, 2010, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published Interim Guidance for Determining Subject Matter Eligibility for Process Claims in View of Bilski v. Kappos in the Federal Register, which provided examiner guidelines for process claim eligibility in light of the Supreme Court's Bilski decision. For a summary of…
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By Donald Zuhn — On June 29, one day after issuing its decision in Bilski v. Kappos, the Supreme Court granted certiorari, vacated the Federal Circuit's decision below, and remanded to the appellate court two cases concerning medical diagnostic claims: Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. v. Mayo Collaborative Services and Classen Immunotherapies, Inc. v. Biogen Idec (see…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — The staid Financial Times (London) has an article today on the gene patenting debate, and while there are things to criticize in it, the article (perhaps predictably) takes a carefully measured, dispassionate (and welcome) tone ("Who steals the gene from off the common"; free registration required). The paper's conservative bona…
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By Donald Zuhn — In June, Myriad Genetics and ten Directors of the University of Utah Research Foundation filed a Notice of Appeal in Association for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, seeking review of the decision by Judge Robert W. Sweet of the Southern District of New York granting partial summary judgment…
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By Tim Peterson — The Federal Circuit will soon be addressing the issue of patentable subject matter as it relates to biotechnology patents in a trilogy of cases: Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. v. Mayo Collaborative Services, Classen Immunotherapies, Inc. v. Biogen Idec, and Association for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("Myriad"). In the…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — In the otherwise unremarkable case of Intervet Inc. v. Merial Ltd., the Federal Circuit reversed the District Court's claim construction on two terms and remanded for further consideration. What has made this case a little more remarkable is that Judge Dyk (at right) took the occasion to sua sponte raise…
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By Donald Zuhn — Last week, the Federal Circuit Bar Association (FCBA) submitted an amicus curiae brief regarding the motion for recusal filed by Plaintiffs-Appellees in Association for Molecular Pathology v. United States Patent and Trademark. Plaintiffs-Appellees filed their motion on June 28, seeking to have Chief Judge Rader recuse himself from any involvement in the…
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By Donald Zuhn — In a motion filed on June 28, Plaintiffs-Appellees in the Association for Molecular Pathology v. United States Patent and Trademark case have moved for Chief Judge Randall R. Rader to recuse himself from any involvement in the appeal. The motion, which was filed by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — It is apparent that the facts are often at risk or ignored by opponents of gene patenting. Indeed, the various forms of fact-twisting or outright falsehood ("corporations own your genes") suggests that it isn't facts that are at issue but opinions, and how the public's opinion on gene patenting…
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