Ontario Defies U.S. Company Over Cancer Test Patent

An anonymous user sent in a minor bit of news about Ontario and a patented cancer test. The part I found interesting was the price comparison between the patented and non-patented tests - $3000, per test, solely due to the government-granted monopoly. Wow.

Comments

10,000+ years of prior art?

[Liquor]

The patenting of existing genes is ridiculous by almost any non-governmental standard. Human genes can be discovered, or isolated, or better understood - but they are NOT an invention.

By all means let them patent a machine or technique for detecting those genes, and rule out even that if doesn't involve using something that's more of an invention than a trivial dependency on the gene itself (such as binding with the complementary sequence)- but the law that is being interpreted to allow patenting the gene itself needs to be revised or overidden.

Now let's see, there's a gene somewhere in the human genome that generates an enzyme that mediates creating ATP with the energy in glucose - If I can patent that gene, then can I sue anybody who uses that gene without paying me a royalty? Yes? Wonderful - That's going to cost everybody $10 a day for the right to eat, and I'll be as rich as Bill Gates in almost no time! (Or would as rich as Rambus Ink. be a better comparison?)