Appeals Court Says (Again) That Diagnostic Tests Are Patentable
from the supreme-court-please? dept
Last year, we wrote how a bunch of doctors were quite worried about an ongoing patent lawsuit, Prometheus Laboratories v. Mayo Collaborative Services. It involved a company, Prometheus, that claimed it could patent basic medial diagnostics, and basically said no one (such as the Mayo Clinic) could diagnose patients in the same way without paying Prometheus. The whole concept was abhorrent to many doctors. Yet, as we worried, last year the appeals court (CAFC), as it has done so often, sided with the patent holders. This summer, when the Supreme Court decided Bilski, one thing it asked CAFC to do was reconsider the Prometheus case. It's now done so, and nothing much has changed. Once again, CAFC has said that basic diagnostic tests may be patentable. Many also think (probably correctly) that this is a good indication that CAFC will also reverse a lower court ruling in the Myriad Genetics case, concerning whether or not genes are patentable. If diagnostic tests are patentable, why not genes? Of course, all this really means is that sooner or later the Supreme Court is going to have to weigh in again, and hopefully it won't punt the issue like it did in Bilski.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: cafc, diagnostic tests, genes, patents, supreme court
Companies: mayo clinic, myriad genetics, prometheus labs
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Patent penis and vagina groping
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Patent penis and vagina groping
"Oh, alright. We'll grope your penis harder then, so we don't infringe on your patent."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Patent penis and vagina groping
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Patent penis and vagina groping
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
My body!
How is that not obvious?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Car Manufacturers
No more non-dealer mechanics, they can not afford the diagnostic procedure licenses.
No more backyard DIY mechanics, DHS/ICE might arrest them for infringing on patents of Government Motors when they replace that dead battery. You know, cause you can only determine if you need a new battery following the patented non-obvious GM procedure.......
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What happens when all houses in America are producing some form of medicine?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]