Cilla Smith and Genevieve Scott File Supreme Court Amicus on Gene Patents

by | January 26, 2012 | Other | No Comments

Brief for the Yale Law School Information Society Project Scholars et al. filed.

On January 13, 2012, members of the ISP led by ISP Fellows in the Program for Reproductive Justice, Cilla Smith and Genevieve Scott, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in The Association for Molecular Pathology, et. al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., et. al.  The group urged the Supreme Court to grant the ACLU’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari to closely examine Myriad’s patents on the information contained in Breast Cancer Susceptibility Genes 1 and 2 (BRCA 1 and 2).

The brief argues that

As the Supreme Court has explained clearly, the grant of a patent is a narrowly tailored exception to our free market system, a “carefully crafted bargain” designed to strike a balance between the avoidance of monopolies that stifle competition and the need to encourage innovation.  Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, 489 U.S. 141, 146 (1989).

In this brief, Amici argue, first, that the Court should grant the Petition because Myriad’s monopoly on the information contained in Breast Cancer Susceptibility Genes 1 and 2 undermines the careful balance struck by the patent rules.  The evidence establishes that by limiting research on the BRCA 1/2 genes, and in the field of genetics more broadly, Myriad’s patents stifle innovation and prevent information about natural phenomenon from being used in research to improve diagnosis and treatment of deadly diseases.

Second, Amici argue that this Court should grant the Petition to closely examine these patents, which harm public health and undermine the exercise of fundamental rights.  Myriad’s patents create significant health risks for women and limit access to life-saving information about naturally occurring aspects of their own genomes, thereby undermining their liberty rights to decisional autonomy, bodily integrity, and procreation.

Amici scholars associated with the ISP are: Wendy Seltzer, Jennifer Keighley, and Margot Kaminski.

Comments

Leave a Reply





  • ISP Calendar of Events


    « February 2012 »
    Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
          1 2 3 4
    5 6 7 8 9 10 11
    12 13 14 15 16 17 18
    19 20 21 22 23 24 25
    26 27 28 29      

    Calendar by Kieran O'Shea

  • Categories

  • archives

  • Tags

    A2K A2K4 Access to Knowledge Blogosphere Conferences Copyright Culture Development Education First Amendment FOI Free Culture Free Speech Fusion Centers Genomics Glee Health Health Impact Fund Human Rights ICANN Ideas Lunch Information Information Ethics Innovation Intellectual Property International Internet govenance Internet Governance ISP Fellows ISP Speaker Series ISP Working Papers Series Library 2.0 New Media Newspapers Open Access Open Government Open Standards Open Video Patents Privacy Science Speaker Series Technologies of Dissent Technology WIPO

  • admin