Can Grandma’s Secret Recipes be Protected and Monetized? A look into the patentability of recipes

The Highs and Lows of Patenting Marijuana Strains

After over 95 years of prohibition, recreational usage of marijuana will be legalized nation-wide on October 17th. While the Cannabis Act will transform cannabis breeding from an illegal cottage industry to a legitimate profession, there has so far been no corresponding change in plant breed intellectual property protection. While there are some protections under existing Canadian law, they are weak […]

Alice Corp., Software Patents, and Lighting the Rabbit Hole of Abstract Ideas

It’s often hard to recognize the evolving nature of legal regimes amidst the fast-paced and so-called revolutionary social and technological changes facilitated by digital and networked technologies. Laws, norms, and conventions developed over centuries are being problematized and rethought as new social, technological, and economic realities emerge. Computer software, a technology that’s mainstream adoption is […]

The Hard Decision about Software Patents

On Monday, March 31st, the United States Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in the case of Alice Corporation Pty Ltd v CLS Bank International. Many hope that this ruling will help bring clarity to the patentability of software and business processes under US patent law.

Isolated Genes Are None Of Your Business! – SCOTUS Decides Myriad

On June 13, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a decision which ruled against the patenting of isolated DNA sequences in their natural form in the now infamous case involving Myriad Genetics, Inc. and the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.  The decision represents a major milestone in the legal treatment of biotechnological inventions, and presents a number of relevant […]

The ‘Myriad’ with the Golden ‘Gene’: Australia Upholds Breast Cancer Gene Patents

The Myriad Genetics gene patenting saga has officially shaped international jurisprudence, with the Federal Court of Australia upholding the patents for BRCA1 and BRCA2. In Cancer Voices Australia v. Myriad Genetics, NSD643/2010, Federal Court of Australia (Sydney), the first Australian case to deal with the issue of gene patents, the Court took a similarly liberal […]

Staying Abreast of an Isolating Issue: USSC to Rule on Patentability of Human Genes

On November 30, 2012 the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal in the case of Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad Genetics Inc. In particular, the Court limited its grant of the appeal to the first question posed by the petitioners: “Are human genes patentable?”

Patenting Food - A Healthy Way Forward?

Obesity and chronic diseases, like diabetes and heart disease, are on the rise.  To solve this crisis, we seem to be searching for the next super food, known as functional food, which will lower our blood sugar, reduce hypertension, and make us lose five pounds.

The Patentability of Gene Sequences: Myriad Genetics’ Day in the United States Supreme Court

In late March, The United States Supreme Court ordered the U.S Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit to reconsider Myriad Genetics’ existing patent on two genes associated with a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer, in light of the judgement rendered in Mayo Collaborative Services v Prometheus Labs (Prometheus). A unanimous Supreme Court […]

Patenting Health: You Cannot Own the Laws of Nature

On March 20, 2012, the United States Supreme Court decided Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., 132 S. Ct. 1289 (U.S. 2012). The case was unanimous and emphatically reaffirmed that United States patent law does not allow ownership of "laws of nature." The context was a pair of patents owned by Prometheus which claimed […]