On April 4, 2011, Judges Lourie, Bryson and Moore at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in Association for Molecular Pathology v. USPTO, also known as the ACLU/Myriad “gene patenting” case. This case has garnered extraordinary attention from the biotech, pharmaceutical, and health care industries, from academic and government researchers, from breast cancer patients and their families, and from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) itself.
These groups disagree on the fundamental legal question of whether isolated DNA should be eligible for a patent, and also disagree on the fundamentally political question of whether the patenting of genes promotes or stifles innovation and development of new diagnostics and therapies. While the Federal Circuit’s decision in this case will be important, further resolution of the issues is likely to come from the Supreme Court. The ultimate decision could have a profound effect on existing intellectual property rights, and could impact current and future patent strategies, particularly in biotechnology-related fields.
