The definitive Supreme Court rule holding that naturally occurring DNA sequences (such as BRCA1/BRCA2) are unpatentable products of nature, whereas synthetic cDNA remains eligible.
In Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics (2013), the Supreme Court unanimously held that isolating a naturally occurring segment of DNA from the human genome is not an inventive act. Because the genetic information sequence is dictated by nature, it remains an unpatentable product of nature under 35 U.S.C. § 101. By contrast, synthetic cDNA (complementary DNA omitting introns) is human-made and eligible for patent protection.
