Slashdot Mirror
Patents On Genes: Round Two
dstates writes "An industry has grown up around patents guaranteeing exclusive access to testing of mutations in specific genes, but recently the Supreme Court rejected a biotechnology patent saying laws of nature cannot be patented, and threw the issue of patents on genes back to the lower courts. The Court of Appeals is now preparing to hear arguments on whether genes can be patented. The results will have major implications. On the one hand, restricting access to whole regions of the human genome will stifle scientific progress. On the other, companies like Myriad Genetics and Optimal Medicine use the patents to protect years of work invested in research, but this also means preventing other companies from offering diagnostics based on competing faster and lower cost technologies to analyze mutations in these genes."
It only takes a single reasonably reputable court (a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for example) to say yes and another to say no for the issue to require escalation to the Supreme court. Even if it was 10 yes and only 1 no, that still means there is ambiguity about the national stance on the issue and the SCOTUS should hear the case. It doesn't mean that all the judges in all the cases were saying the wrong thing until SCOTUS, it just means one judge said the wrong thing early enough in the issue's existence or with enough weight to introduce ambiguity on the legality nationwide.