Supreme Court Issues Decision in Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. Patent Case

June 13, 2013

The Supreme Court today released its decision in the Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. patent case.   The court unanimously held that"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.  Accordingly, the Federal Circuit'sMyriad holding was affirmed-in-part and reversed-in-part. According to the Court, finding the location of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes did not render the genes patent eligible “new . . . composition[s] of matter,” under §101.  cDNA, on the other hand, was found to be patent eligible because it is an exons-only molecule, which according to the Court is not naturally occurring. Stay tuned for an in-depth analysis of the Myriad holding here at the Higher Education IP Law Report.