Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2012
Abstract
In 1980, the Supreme Court gave a reassuring signal to the then-nascent biotechnology industry about the availability of patent protection for the fruits of its research when it upheld the patentability of a genetically modified living organism in Diamond v. Chakrabarty. Twenty-five years later, the Court seemed poised to reexamine the limits of patentable subject matter for advances in the life sciences when it granted certiorari in Laboratory Corporation v. Metabolite. But the Federal Circuit had not addressed the patentable subject matter issue in Laboratory Corporation, and the Court ultimately dismissed the certiorari p etition as improvidently granted. Five years later, two pending cases in which the issue of patentable subject matter has been fully litigated in the lower courts provide opportunities for the Court to resolve some of the uncertainties exposed in Laboratory Corporation.
Recommended Citation
Eisenberg, Rebecca S. "Wisdom of the Ages or Dead-Hand Control? Patentable Subject Matter for Diagnostic Methods After In Re Bilski." Case W. Res. J. L. Tech. & Internet 3, no. 1 (2012): 1-65.
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