Patents are issued for any number of things, and the U.S. Patent Office has three different categories for them: utility, design and plant. You may be surprised to know that genes have also been patented for decades, but that stopped a few years ago after the Supreme Court took action.
That hasn’t stopped a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are involved in legislation to ease those restrictions, even with concerns expressed by some patient and civil rights groups.
To learn more about gene patenting and potential changes, The Show was joined by Robert Cook-Deegan, professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at ASU.
