Patenting DNA

The protection of inventions based on human DNA sequences has been achieved mainly through application of the patent system. Over the past decade, there has been continuing debate about whether this use of intellectual property rights is acceptable. Companies and universities have been active during this period in filing thousands of patent applications. Although many have argued that to claim a DNA sequence in a patent is to claim a discovery, patent law allows discoveries that are useful to be claimed as part of an invention. As the technology to isolate DNA sequences has advanced, the criterion for inventiveness, necessary for any invention to be eligible for filing, has become more difficult to justify in the case of claims to DNA sequences. Moreover, the discovery that a gene is associated with a particular disease is, it is argued, to discover a fact about the world and undeserving of the status of an invention. Careful examination of the grounds for allowing the patenting of DNA sequences as research tools suggests such rewards will rarely be justified. The patenting of DNA sequences as chemical intermediates necessary for the manufacture of therapeutic proteins is, however, reasonable given that the information within the sequence is applied to produce a tangible substance which has application as a medicine. Despite the legal, technical and political complexities of applying the flexibilities with the current law, it is argued that much could be achieved in the area of patenting DNA by raising the thresholds for patentability.