Supreme Court Rules Against Gene Patents

On March 26, the US Supreme Court overruled a 2011 federal appeals court decision that upheld the legality of genetic patents held by Myriad Genetics Inc. The case is Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics.

From the Washington Post:

The Supreme Court threw out that decision, and sent the case back to the lower courts for rehearing. The high court said it sent the case back for rehearing because of its decision in another case last week saying that the laws of nature are unpatentable.

That case, Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. Analysis, was decided on March 20.

Read the transcript of the oral arguments in the Prometheus case.

Crichton published two op-eds in the New York Times on the topic of gene patents:

This Essay Breaks the Law
March 19, 2006

Patenting Life
February 13, 2007

Somewhere, Michael Crichton is smiling… (yet again)

Related posts:

Gene Patents Case Appealed

Newsflash - Gene Patents Ruled Invalid

Ebay Alert – Odds On 3/7/12

A copy of Michael Crichton’s first published book Odds On is up for auction on eBay.

Currently the price is $25 with one bid. Expect it to go higher than $100 by the end. (Only suckers bid early on eBay). Auction ends March 12, 2012 at 20:28:42 PDT.

Seller’s reputation is 100 percent positive.

Item Description:

Odds On by John Lange aka Michael Crichton. This is very readable copy of Michael Crichton's first book originally published in December 1966 by Signet under his pseudonym John Lange. This is a third printing in acceptable condition. Other Signet Titles by John Lange listed on page 2 of this book include Scratch One, Easy Go, Zero Cool, Drug of Choice and Grave Descend, which means this copy was most likely printed about 1970 when the last two books listed were first published.