Congress skips patent bill to hurry home

WASHINGTON - The House adjourned Saturday without taking action on a biotechnology patent bill, ensuring that the Congress will not pass the legislation this year.

The proposed process patent law would overrule the application of a Federal Circuit Court decision, made in the "Durden" case, to biological process patents. In Durden, the court had ruled that when a chemical process, such as genetic engineering, is already "known," it cannot be patented...