Can researchers patent a scientific fact? This week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the question in a dispute between diagnostics makers. A 1986 patent belonging to University of Colorado-affiliated Metabolite Laboratories covers a technique to measure homocysteine, a marker for vitamins in the blood.The claim at issue is the correlation scientists discovered--and patented--between homocysteine concentrations and vitamin levels.
In 1999, Metabolite Laboratories, which owned the patents, sued LabCorp, which had developed a rival test that relies on that correlation, for infringement. Lab-Corp says that Metabolite's patent, if legitimate, means companies can "claim monopolies over basic scientific facts." Metabolite says its discovery is its rightful intellectual property and not a law of nature,which cannot be patented. "[Y]ou'd call it a guideline of nature more than a law of nature," says Metabolite attorney Glenn Beaton of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Denver, Colorado.
