Isolated Nucleic Acids are Patent Eligible in Australia
By Shelley Rowland,
Lexology
| 06. 25. 2014
Last year, the Federal Court of Australia confirmed that isolated naturally occurring nucleic acid sequences are patent eligible subject matter. The landmark decision affirms the long standing practice of granting claims to isolated nucleic acid sequences in Australia.
The applicants opposed to the patenting of human genetic material have since lodged an appeal against the ruling with the Full Federal Court of Australia: a decision on the appeal is expected later this year.
Cancer Voices Australia Pty Ltd v Myriad Genetics Inc
In Cancer Voices Australia Pty Ltd v Myriad Genetics Inc [2013] FCA 65 the Federal Court considered the validity of Myriad’s claims to isolated nucleic acid sequences encoding the BRCA1 gene. BRCA1 is associated with breast and ovarian cancers. The applicants argued that Myriad’s claims to the BRCA1 gene were invalid, on the basis that isolated nucleic acid sequences are a product of nature, and do not constitute a “manner of manufacture” as required under the Australian Patents Act 1990. No other grounds of invalidity were pleaded.
In his decision, Justice Nicholas ruled in favour of Myriad, finding...
Related Articles
By Tomoko Otake, The Japan Times | 04.09.2024
A decade ago, researcher Haruko Obokata caused a sensation when she published two papers in the journal Nature, in which she claimed that she had discovered a way to create stem cells easily using the so-called STAP method.
With STAP...
By Yelena Biberman and Jonathan D. Moreno, Bioethics Forum | 04.16.2024
A quiet biological revolution in warfare is underway. The genome is emerging as a new domain of conflict. The level of destruction that only nuclear weapons could previously achieve is fast becoming as accessible as a cyberattack.
Now for the...
By Jorge Barrera and Rachel Houlihan, CBC | 04.09.2024
A Canadian DNA laboratory knowingly delivered prenatal paternity test results that routinely identified the wrong biological fathers — ruling out the real dads — and left a trail of shattered lives around the globe, a CBC News investigation has found...
By Eleanor Hayward and Joanna Crawford, The Times | 03.29.2024
Gazing out at the Mediterranean from an idyllic rocky mountaintop, Sophie Hermann announced to her half a million Instagram followers that she had decided to freeze her eggs. Since that post in August, the 37-year-old former Made in Chelsea star...