Aggregated News
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ordered an appeals court to take a new look at a lawsuit challenging Myriad Genetics Inc.'s (MYGN) patents on human genes.
The appeals court sided with Myriad last year, rejecting arguments that the company's claims were invalid because they sought to patent products of nature.
But in a short written order, the justices vacated that ruling and told the lower court to consider the case again in light of a significant Supreme Court ruling last week that invalidated two Prometheus Laboratories Inc. patents on a medical diagnostic test for monitoring drug dosages.
The Prometheus decision gave new force to the longstanding command in patent law that inventors cannot patent natural laws or phenomena.
The ruling sparked industry-wide uncertainty about other medical-test patents in the growing field of personalized medicine, and it sent Myriad shares south on fears the Supreme Court eventually could throw out the gene patents.
The justices could have agreed to hear the Myriad case themselves, which had been pending at the high court, but instead sent it back to...
The appeals court sided with Myriad last year, rejecting arguments that the company's claims were invalid because they sought to patent products of nature.
But in a short written order, the justices vacated that ruling and told the lower court to consider the case again in light of a significant Supreme Court ruling last week that invalidated two Prometheus Laboratories Inc. patents on a medical diagnostic test for monitoring drug dosages.
The Prometheus decision gave new force to the longstanding command in patent law that inventors cannot patent natural laws or phenomena.
The ruling sparked industry-wide uncertainty about other medical-test patents in the growing field of personalized medicine, and it sent Myriad shares south on fears the Supreme Court eventually could throw out the gene patents.
The justices could have agreed to hear the Myriad case themselves, which had been pending at the high court, but instead sent it back to...