Maybe they should patent snowflakes...

*They wanted mine.  ;-)

Genes not patentable says US Supreme Court  
13 JUNE 13  by KADHIM SHUBBER

The US Supreme Court has ruled that genes can't be patented. In a decision that will have profound repercussions for the future of genetic research, as well as breast and ovarian cancer testing, the Court wrote, "a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible".  In February, a court in Australia came to the opposite conclusion in an almost identical case.  All nine US judges agreed that Myriad Genetics, the defendant and holder of patents on two genes that signal a risk of breast and ovarian cancer, could not claim that isolating and sequencing a gene made it their intellectual property.  The case was sparked when Myriad issued a cease-and-desist orderto a team of Yale University researchers who were studying the genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2.  A case brought against Myriad in Australia, concerning BRCA1, failed with the judges ruling that gene isolation and extraction could be classified as "new manufacture".  Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 can indicate that a woman is at high risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Myriad's patents on these genes gave it a monopoly in the US on cancer risk tests using those genes.  The company charges $3,340 for breast cancer analysis, plus $700 for an additional test that indicates an increased cancer risk in 10 percent of woman who test negatively in the first test.  By patenting the genes, and the technique for identifying mutations in them, Myriad was able to prevent anyone else from using these genes to test for cancer risk, or even research new ways of examining those genes. The ruling may help to reduce the cost of BRCA1 and BRCA2 tests, as other companies may now be able to provide tests.  Since 1982, the US Patent Office has granted more than 40,000 patents related to genetic material. The ruling will void at least some of these patents.  The ruling is somewhat of a compromise, in that Myriad can continue to claim a patent on synthetically created BRCA1 and BRCA2.