Aggregated News
In what appears to be the end of a long running legal saga, a ruling by the UK's Supreme Court has found in favour of a patent for a gene and the protein sequence it encodes. Lawyers say that the ruling will make it easier to patent discoveries which do not have a clear demonstrated application, a result that will largely please the private bioscience industry but may alarm many who believe that human genes should not be patentable.
In a case described as 'difficult and troublesome' by Lord Hope, one of the five presiding judges, the patent was found to be valid, quashing two earlier verdicts in lower courts.
In 2005 Human Genome Sciences patented the gene and protein sequence of what they called neutrokine-α after identifying it as a member of the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) ligand superfamily. They also patented antibodies that they produced against the protein. However, it is a requirement of patents that the technology be 'capable of industrial application', meaning that it has to be useful.
The company believed that like other members of...
In a case described as 'difficult and troublesome' by Lord Hope, one of the five presiding judges, the patent was found to be valid, quashing two earlier verdicts in lower courts.
In 2005 Human Genome Sciences patented the gene and protein sequence of what they called neutrokine-α after identifying it as a member of the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) ligand superfamily. They also patented antibodies that they produced against the protein. However, it is a requirement of patents that the technology be 'capable of industrial application', meaning that it has to be useful.
The company believed that like other members of...