Tag Archives: biotechnology law

Patenting “Natural Products” Down-Under Post-Myriad

Although the Australian High Court held that claims to naturally occurring DNA (e.g., BRCA1 nucleic acid) were not patent eligible because they were not a “manner of manufacture,” since the encoded information therein was not “made” by human action, in … Continue reading

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Ariosa v. Sequenom – Rehearing En Banc Denied

Not surprisingly, the Fed. Cir., on December 2nd, denied Sequenom’s petition for rehearing en banc of the invalidation of certain of the claims of U.S. Pat. No. 6,258,540 which were directed to methods of detecting and using cffDNA. (Appeal no. … Continue reading

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Prometheus v. Roxane – A Glimpse of Christmas Future?

A Fed. Cir. panel of Judges Dyk, Taranto and Hughes affirmed the district court’s invalidation of a Prometheus “add-on” patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,284,770) to a method to treat a form of irritable bowel syndrome, IBS-D, with alosetron, as obvious … Continue reading

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Australian Patent Office Proposes “Coding Only” Sequence Ban

Coming soon after the High Court’s “Myriad decision” in Australia, the Australian Patent Office has proposed guidelines that would effectively limit the ban on patent-eligibility of DNA sequences to nucleic acids that code for polypeptides. While cDNA is still considered … Continue reading

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