Myriad Genetics, American Civil Liberties Union, Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), University of Utah Research Foundation diagnostic news

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that patents covering the breast cancer 1 early onset (BRCA1) and BRCA2 genes held by Myriad Genetics are invalid. District Judge Robert Sweet wrote in his decision that isolated DNA is not "markedly different" from native DNA, which is not patentable because it is a product of nature. Judge Sweet also said the patents' methods of analyzing and comparing genes were invalid under the "machine-or-transformation" test, the legality of which was the subject of oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos last year. ...