Tony Parsons on Biotechnology Patents

[Rob Russell]

My biggest problem with sequence patents is the following:

Are sequences actually patentable?  I read in New Scientist a few
months ago a brilliant article claiming that sequences are not
actually patentable in the same sense that, say, a PCR machine is.
They likened sequences with "discoveries" rather than "inventions",
then posed a question along the lines of: "Can one patent a discovery
like Mt. Fuji?".

Perhaps if people are interested in challenging the right to
patent sequence information, this might be one line of attack.

No disclaimer.

Robert Russell
Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics
Oxford, UK.
rbr at uk.ac.ox.biop