Robert Cook-Deegan (Duke) Patenting Life, ISHPSSB 2013
Channel: IPBio
Date: 2013-07-29

For more information on this event see http://ipbio.org

The Myriad Case: So many messages, so little time

Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad Genetics made it to The Daily Show. Who says Supreme Court decisions cannot be funny? This epic case was deliberately constructed by public interest lawyers to change patent jurisprudence. It was a rare public interest patent case that initially seemed quixotic but morphed into conventional wisdom and high theatre. The difference was change of frame from the cloistered world of patent law to the real world of women facing cancer, and legal generalists confronting patent exclusivity that blocked access to information about one's self without permission from a private corporation. The Supreme Court decision itself devoted little attention to considerations beyond innovation policy, but the cultural narrative that surrounded the case pitted IP rights against access to care, control of medical standards of care, and rights to informational self-determination. Does this represent a new direction in IP law, or is it just an unusual outlier case occasioned by a biotech startup with a particular knack for alienating its customers and natural allies while galvanizing opposition from well organized disease constituencies?