Publication
Generative AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) raises many intellectual property (IP) issues.
Global | Publication | October 2015
The High Court of Australia has unanimously invalidated a patent, owned by Myriad Genetics, which related to the BRCA1 gene. The BRCA1 gene, and associated protein, are involved in repair of DNA in some human cells. In the 1990s, Myriad Genetics identified the location of the BRCA1 gene within the human genome, and mutations (variations in the gene’s sequence) which increased the susceptibility of the patient to breast and ovarian cancer. Myriad Genetics’ patent, broadly, included claims to isolated DNA (i.e. removed from the cell, and dissociated from the cellular proteins which bind to DNA) with these mutations. The patent granted Myriad Genetics the sole right to isolate the BRCA1 gene for the purposes of genetic testing.
The case only considered whether the claims related to a “manner of manufacture” and were therefore patentable subject matter. The High Court has overturned previous Federal Court, and Full Federal Court, decisions that found that they did. The High Court’s decision has cast significant doubt on the validity of gene patents in general, although the work of the Human Genome Project has largely rendered such patents obsolete.
The High Court issued three separate judgments on the patent in issue, each of which provides substantially different reasoning for the invalidity of the patent. The judgment of the Chief Justice and Justices Kiefel, Bell and Keane (majority judgment) provides a substantial revision of the formulation of the test to determine whether an invention relates to a manner of manufacture, for the first time since the decision in National Research Development Corporation v Commissioner of Patents (NRDC) was handed down in 1959. As recently as December 2013, the High Court had specifically upheld the NRDC test in relation to methods of treatment of humans in the Apotex v Sanofi Aventis case.
Publication
Artificial intelligence (AI) raises many intellectual property (IP) issues.
Publication
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) recently ruled in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz & Ors v. Switzerland (Application No. 53600/20) that Switzerland had breached the European Convention of Human Rights (the Convention) by not taking sufficient action against climate change. In particular, it found a breach of the right to respect for private and family life contained in Article 8 of the Convention, based on Switzerland’s failure to mitigate the impact of climate change on the lives, health, well-being and quality of life of its citizens. It also ruled that Switzerland had breached the right to a fair trial in terms of Article 6, in that the domestic courts failed to examine the merits of the applicants’ complaints, including the scientific evidence. In this article we consider the key features of this landmark judgment, which has wide ramifications for Member States of the Convention.
Publication
We are delighted to announce that Al Hounsell, Director of Strategic Innovation & Legal Design based in our Toronto office, has been named 'Innovative Leader of the Year' at the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) Awards.
Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest legal news, information and events . . .
© Norton Rose Fulbright LLP 2023