Oral Arguments In U.S. Gene Patenting Case

On Friday, July 20, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. (the ACLU "gene patenting"/BRCAI case), which is on remand in view of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Mayo v. Prometheus. Reading the tea leaves from the judges' questions and comments, I think the panel decision will depend on whether Judge Moore again concurs with Judge Lourie on the patent-eligibility of isolated DNA, or whether she feels compelled by Mayo to join Judge Bryson, who would invalidate the claims. You can listen to the recording of the oral arguments here, and you can read my full recap of the oral arguments on PharmaPatentsBlog. A decision is likely a few months away, and the case is expected to make its way to the Supreme Court again.