Myriad Voices Against Gene Patents in the High Court
McCallum L, Faunce TA Myriad Voices Against Gene Patents in the High Court (2015) JLM 23(2):322-9
8 Pages Posted: 29 Oct 2018
Date Written: 2015
Abstract
The Australian High Court’s recent landmark decision in D’Arcy v Myriad Genetics Inc overturned the decision by the Federal Court in Cancer Voices Australia v Myriad Genetics Inc regarding patenting of genetic material. The Federal Court had found that isolated DNA and RNA can constitute a patentable invention under s 18(1)(a) of the Patents Act 1990 (Cth). The decision by the High Court unanimously reversed this and declared it was appropriate to look to the policy implications at the heart of the legal question: are genes a category of things that can be patented? This column critically examines the implications of the High Court decision for both research and public health in Australia.
Note: This article was first published by Thomson Reuters in the Journal of Law and Medicine and should be cited as ‘McCallum L, Faunce TA, Myriad Voices Against Gene Patents in the High Court, 2015, 23, JLM, 322’.
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Keywords: Gene Patents, DNA Patents, RNA Patents, Public Health
JEL Classification: I18, K32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation