Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
1
35 USC Section 101 states: 'Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machinery,
manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent
therefore, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.' For a pivotal study on the application of
the products of nature doctrine see John M. Conley and Roberte Makowski (
2003
)
. Back to the future:
Rethinking the product of nature doctrine as a barrier to biotechnology patents,
Journal of the Patent and
Trademark Office Society
.
85
: 301. Such boundaries were recently scrutinized in the test case
Association
for Molecular Pathology
v.
Myriad Genetics, Inc.
In particular, on 13 June 2013, the US Supreme Court
eventually held that 'a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible
merely because it has been isolated, but synthetic complementary DNA ('cDNA') is patent eligible be-
