A fascinating patent case is being heard in the appellate courts in Utah. Myriad Genetics is fighting for its right to patent isolated strings of DNA, a right the USPTO has granted for some time, but which is now being challenged. Consider these two analogies:
On the one hand: You cannot patent a string of DNA, which occurs in nature, any more than you can patent a kidney, or an electron.
On the other: Extracting a string of DNA is no different than patenting a baseball bat that has been carved out of a tree.
Having no sophistication in patent law (even though I've paid attorneys millions of dollars for patent litigation!), I'd offer up two general layman principles: First, if the extracted DNA was the result of a unique design then perhaps it is justifiably patentable. Second, since DNA codes are essentially two-dimensional strands, the notion of a unique design becomes far reaching--it is less a baseball bat that we are extracting and more a center slice from the tree trunk.
It will be interesting to see where this case goes.
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