Patent officials run amok?

One finds the text --patent officials run amok-- within an editorial at the San Francisco Chronicle on the Myriad case.

The editorial views gravity as an abstract idea, as distinct from a law of nature:

Traditionally, the Supreme Court has held that no one is allowed to patent products of nature (like apples or gold), laws of nature (like E=MC squared) or abstract ideas (like gravity). Human genes would obviously fall under both the first and second categories, but "the patent office has been chipping away at that law for the last 20 or 30 years," Hansen said.

See also

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2009/05/aclu-sues-us-patent-office.html

Cross-reference


San Francisco Chronicle Thinks Gravity is an Idea