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News Tips

Indiana University law professor available to discuss ACLU gene patent lawsuit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit (May 11) against the Patent and Trademark Office, Myriad Genetics, and the University of Utah Research Foundation for patenting BRCA1 and BRCA2, the genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. According to the ACLU, patenting genes limits research and the free flow of information and, as a result, violates the First Amendment.

Yvonne Cripps, the Harry T. Ice Professor of Law at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, who specializes in intellectual property law and biotechnology, said this is likely to be a landmark case. "The patents held by Myriad are themselves vulnerable, but that does not reduce the need for a constitutional challenge in this particular situation," she said. "The patents have already been questioned internationally because of their fundamental importance. Various Canadian state governments effectively ignore these patents on unmodified human breast cancer genes because they affect, in various ways, access to potentially life-saving medical treatment. In my opinion, they may ultimately be thought to be relevant to the 14th Amendment's protection for life and liberty."

Cripps is the author of Controlling Technology: Genetic Engineering and the Law, published in 1980, which was the first comprehensive treatment of the legal implications of biotechnology. She is also the author of The Legal Implications of Disclosure in the Public Interest, now in its second edition, and more than 40 articles on intellectual property, privacy law, and biotechnology including "The Art and Science of Genetic Modification: Re-Engineering Patent Law and Constitutional Orthodoxies," which suggests that patents on human genes are open to constitutional challenge.

She can be reached by e-mail at ycripps@indiana.edu or by phone (from the U.S.) at 011 44 20 7237 7693.

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