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Patents on a Pig? Part one.
Tamster almost 2 years ago | 1 response    

What Can Be Patented taken from the United states Patent and Trademark Office website http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/index.html#whatpat

“The patent law specifies the general field of subject matter that can be patented and the conditions under which a patent may be obtained.

In the language of the statute, any person who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent,�? subject to the conditions and requirements of the law. The word “process�? is defined by law as a process, act or method, and primarily includes industrial or technical processes. The term “machine�? used in the statute needs no explanation. The term “manufacture�? refers to articles that are made, and includes all manufactured articles. The term “composition of matter�? relates to chemical compositions and may include mixtures of ingredients as well as new chemical compounds. These classes of subject matter taken together include practically everything that is made by man and the processes for making the products.

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 excludes the patenting of inventions useful solely in the utilization of special nuclear material or atomic energy in an atomic weapon 42 U.S.C. 2181 (a).

The patent law specifies that the subject matter must be “useful.�? The term “useful�? in this connection refers to the condition that the subject matter has a useful purpose and also includes operativeness, that is, a machine which will not operate to perform the intended purpose would not be called useful, and therefore would not be granted a patent.

Interpretations of the statute by the courts have defined the limits of the field of subject matter that can be patented, thus it has been held that the laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas are not patentable subject matter.”

I fail to see how pig gene sequences that naturally exist do not fall under the laws of nature or physical phenomena, which as stated above are not patentable. If this patent is approved I seriously fear for the future of humankind. I plan on calling the patent office tomorrow to see what the status of these applications are.