Hearing On Gene Patents Today
(New York, NY) -- A federal court will hear arguments today from the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation regarding the legitimacy of patents on a pair of human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer. The groups will ask the court to rule that such patents are both invalid and unconstitutional. A lawsuit was filed in May against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the patent-holders of the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation. The suit claims holding patents on human genes is a violation of the First Amendment as genes are "products of nature" and as such, cannot be patented.< |