The recent news of 23andMe’s first patent shows how patents on natural genes continue despite the complex legal situation faced by other companies, and despite an explicitly stated ethos of openness and “democratization.” 23andMe has patented methods for screening the naturally occurring variants of the human genome they found to be associated with risk for Parkinson’s disease. The announcement on the company’s blog, The Spittoon, clarifies what they hope the patent will and won’t do.
Additional Resources:
- Patent Ecology, Scientific American
- First ever patent for 23andMe, Michael J. Fox Foundation
- Patenting and personal genomics, Genomics Law Report
- Patent concerns, Genome Web
- Still patently unclear, Genevalues
- Us Supreme Court upends diagnostics patents, Nature
