[Upd-discuss] patenting genes

[Lucas Parra]

There is no good argument. One answer to  your question might be
"expressed sequence tags" (EST). These are markers that indicate that a
piece of DNA does have some functional role. I'm no expert but I
understand that ESTs are part of genes and those produce useful things
like protein for example. If you find an EST marker you found a gene
that is useful for something. Combined with the vaguest notion what that
DNA strand might actually be doing will be considers by the PTO
non-obvious intellectual value. The functionality can often be roughly
guesses by comparing to other similar looking genes out of a database.
There is software to do that automatically now. Furthermore you have to
show utility. Say you will use it for drug development. Done. Patented.
Whether all your claims are actually true is irrelevant. Have a look at 
patent US6025810 (http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US06025810__ ) 
to have a good laugh and to get an idea how wrong things can be and
still be patented.  Its a joke, but it is how they want to look at it.

Lucas

Further reading: "Patent Office May Raise the Bar on Gene Claims", by
Martin Enserink, Science 2000 February 18; 287: 1196-1197. In general in
Science you find lots of articles on the subject.

Robert Weissman wrote:
> 
> As many may know, the issue of the patenting of the human genome is now
> very hot (see cover of today's Wall Street Journal).
> 
> I remain unclear on how it is that patents are granted for genes. Why is
> not the discovery of a gene a non-patentable discovery rather than a
> patentable invention?
> 
> The patent office is now making a distinction between finding genes and
> being able to explain what a particular gene does, with a tendency to give
> patents only the latter case. But why does this cross the invention
> threshold?
> 
> This is not to ask for a moral critique of life or human patents, or even
> necessarily a legal critique of the patents. I'm just trying to understand
> the basic rationale for granting patents in these cases.
> 
> Robert Weissman
> Essential Information                   |   Internet:   rob@essential.org
> 
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