Bioperl: Re: Open Source and Bio questions

[Lincoln Stein]

I think it's even broader than that.  People feel they can patent
sequences as long as they have enough information about the sequence
to list a set of potential applications.  None of these patent claims
has yet come to court.

Lincoln

Ewan Birney writes:
 > On Mon, 6 Dec 1999, Clay Shirky wrote:
 > 
 > > > I really don't know what Craig is patenting, and wouldn't want to
 > > > misrepresent his plans.  Have you asked him?  He's a very open and
 > > > forthcoming kind of guy.
 > > 
 > > Sorry, didn't mean to focus on him per se, just picked Celera because
 > > they've just filed so many patents recently (and yes, I'm trying to
 > > talk with him as well). 
 > > 
 > > What I am trying to understand is what exactly does one own when one
 > > patents a genetic sequence? The press is very confused on this issue,
 > > and as I am thinking of writing about it, I want to try to understand
 > > the issues from the point of view of the fields practitoners.
 > 
 > This list probably has a mixture of practioners and non-practioners here.
 > What you really want to get hold of is a lawyer in a biotech company ;).
 > They are slippery customers...
 > 
 > Here is how I understand it...
 > 
 > People file a patent on sequences as a reagent to do things with
 > sequences, in particular retrieve that sequence from a database, 
 > retrieve the physical DNA with PCR or hybridisations. Notice that the
 > patent is not on "just the sequence" but on the *use* of the sequence
 > to retrieve the gene (either electronically or physically).
 > 
 > 
 > As doing virtually anything with the sequence with infringe this patent
 > (god knows what happens when people use sequences outside of the sequence
 > but on the same gene as the sequence that is patented to retrieve
 > something - the mind boggles) these patents effectively hold alot of power
 > over the use of the sequence. However, other people can get patents on the
 > sequence for other things: eg, that this sequence is diagnostic for heart
 > failure etc. etc. Then the two patent holders horsetrade as to how the
 > reagent should be taken forward. Most of the times this gets settled
 > quickly between large organisations.
 > 
 > 
 > I don't know of (but I would be **extremely** interested) what cases have
 > come to court and what precendents have been set as to how these patents
 > work.
 > 
 > 
 > As in all fields, the first patent is usually followed by a series of
 > other patents that effectively extend the life of the patent.
 > 
 > 
 > All in all I think it is a pretty crummy way of protecting intellectual
 > property on these things, and I don't feel that patenting gene sequences
 > for retrieval/identification is useful or should be allowed. Patenting
 > specific uses I think should be.
 > 
 > 
 > If you find out more stuff, can you post back here? (or at least to me)
 > I am sure we would all be interested in how this works out.
 > 
 > 
 > > 
 > > -clay
 > > 
 > 
 > -----------------------------------------------------------------
 > Ewan Birney. Work: +44 (0)1223 494992. Mobile: +44 (0)7970 151230
 > <birney@sanger.ac.uk>
 > http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Users/birney/
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Lincoln D. Stein                           Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
lstein@cshl.org			                  Cold Spring Harbor, NY
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