10 Jul USA – the Supreme Court decided : human DNA is not patentable
A judgment of the Supreme Court rendered on 13 June 2013 rules that naturally-occurring human genes cannot be subject to patent protection. In this case, the biotechnology company Myriad had filed several patents to protect human genes identified and isolated in the 90s and whose hereditary mutations greatly increase the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers.
In the same judgment, the Supreme Court confirms the validity of patents on complementary DNA, that is to say, copied from the DNA of a cell and artificially synthesized.
This judgment reverses three decades of patents awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on human genes.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.