Patentable Subject Matter

patentable matter

If you are an inventor, you may have thought about protecting your inventions. But what protections are available? One form of protection is to patent your invention. A utility patent confers the rights to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing a device or invention covered by the patent into the […]

Patenting DNA: Does Canada Have it Right?

DNA

It is no secret that in order to obtain a patent, the invention must be a “useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof”, (35 U.S.C. 101) but is allowing patenting of DNA taking the “useful” requirement too far? Canada doesn’t think so. Canada’s Intellectual Property Office has no qualms […]

The Supreme Court & DNA: Winners All Around

DNA SUPREME COURT

  The recent Supreme Court ruling about the legality of patenting human DNA was groundbreaking in fields of genetic research, setting the tone for rulings to come. In its decision, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that human genes, even if they are isolated, cannot be patented under 35 U.S.C. §101. Myraid Genetics Inc. held patents […]

Patenting of a living organism

patentable subject matter

In 1971 a microbiologist, Ananda Chakrabarty, working in a research laboratory of General Electric, created a bacterium capable of breaking down hydrocarbon components of crude oil. The genetically-engineered micro-organism held potential for use for the bioremediation of oil spills. The following year Chakrabarty filed a patent application in the United States Patent and Trademark Office […]