Justices Reach Out to Consider Patent Case - New York Times

Justices Reach Out to Consider Patent Case - New York Times:

This will be a landmark case. I have long believed that some realities and interrelationships of processes, chemicals and other natural phenomena in life are not and should not be patentable. An invention should be patentable, not a naturally occuring phenomenon.

"Some patent specialists say they think the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, against the advice of the United States solicitor general, to rein in patenting.

'The Supreme Court reached out and grabbed this case,' said Edward R. Reines, a patent attorney at Weil, Gotshal & Manges who is not involved in the case. 'These circumstances suggest that some members of the court believe there are too many patents in areas where there should be none.'

At issue is whether relationships between a substance in the human body and a disease — for example, the familiar association between high cholesterol and a higher risk of heart attacks — can be the basis of a patent, or whether such relationships are unpatentable natural phenomena."