Intellectual Property Alert: Myriad Impact of the Federal Circuit’s Decision in Myriad Genetics
8/9/2011
To the relief of many in the biotechnology community, the patentability of “isolated” DNA molecules has been confirmed by a split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. But there was disagreement even among the two-judge majority as to the reasons why. With respect to Myriad’s diagnostic method claims, the panel was unanimous in holding them unpatentable as directed only to abstract mental steps. In contrast, all three judges agreed that the screening method claims were patentable because they included “transformative” process steps. Of interest to the biotech community will be the roadmap to writing a diagnostic method claim provided by this court.
