The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals this week denied Myriad's motion to declare the case against its BRCA patents moot, reports Patent Docs' Kevin Noonan. When the court originally heard the case, it declared that only one of the named plaintiffs, Harry Ostrer, had standing to bring the case because he said he was ready to use the patented BRCA diagnostic method in his practice if the patent was struck down, Noonan says. Myriad, however, claimed that since Ostrer had left New York University, he no longer had the ability to perform the BRCA tests, and asked the court to declare him ineligible to bring suit, and therefore declare the case moot and dismiss it, Noonan adds. The court denied Myriad's motion.
Meanwhile, says Amy Maxmen at the Nature News blog, the ACLU is preparing to go back to court. The organization has once again filed briefs detailing its case against Myriad and will argue its case in front of a judge on July 20, Maxmen says. "The case was revived in March when the Supreme Court ruled that patents on a blood test from the California-based diagnostics company Prometheus Laboratories were invalid because they simply reflected 'a law of nature,'" she adds. ACLU attorney Sandra Park says the ruling "reinvigorated our concern that there are too many patents on natural phenomenon."