Noonan: “Not having patents means not having drugs"

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Knowles and others argue that the Myriad ruling struck down patents only on DNA that has been isolated from nature, and that the patent office’s policy overreaches in covering too many nature-based products and processes. For instance, the guidance instructs patent examiners that a recipe for keeping fruit juice fresh by mixing it with vitamin E might not be patentable because neither the juice nor the preservative have been significantly modified from their natural form. “In the court’s decisions, ‘natural products’ is not limited to DNA,’’ explains June Cohan, a legal adviser to the patent office.