Genes can’t be patented, rules Australia’s High Court
        
            By Michael Slezak, 
                New Scientist
             | 10. 07. 2015
        
                    
                                    
                    
                                                                                                                                    
                                                                            
                              
    
  
  
    
  
          
  
      
    
             
  Untitled Document 
  
Your genes are no longer patentable in Australia. The country’s highest court found unanimously that two previous Australian judgments allowing patents of genes were wrong, and they do not constitute a patentable invention.
 
  The judges unanimously agreed on the outcome,   but had different reasons. The majority of judges ruled that the key   part of a gene is not its physical structure, but rather the information   stored in it, which is not an invention. They wrote: “[Its] substance   is information embodied in arrangements of nucleotides. The information   is not ‘made’ by human action. It is discerned.”
 
  They also said that if the patent was allowed, then it could be   infringed by someone regardless of how they tested for it. And a   pathologist wouldn’t know they had infringed it, until they actually   found the gene. They noted that this could have a “chilling effect” on   healthcare and research. “Such a result would be at odds with the   purposes of the patent system,” they wrote.
 
  Another group of judges said the subject of the patent was the   isolated piece of...
 
 
  
 
    
    
  
   
                        
                                                                                
                 
                                                    
                            
                                  
    
  
  
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