No patent on DNA
Court rules unanimously that a genetics company cannot patent a sequence of naturally occurring human genes, which it discovered and uses to assess patients’ cancer risk. The decision says Myriad Genetics, Inc. can patent cDNA a synthetic composite created by laboratory technicians. Justice Thomas writes:
A naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated, but cDNA is patent eligible because it is not naturally occurring,