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June 22, 2006

What a let down...

For everyone expecting a monumental decision from Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings v. Metabolite Laboratories, Inc., you are going to be let down….the Supreme Court dismissed it.  The dissent gives a couple of reasons why the Court may have dismissed – technically the whole “law of nature” question was left out of earlier arguments and overall it may be beneficial to hear what the Federal Courts think first. 

Justices Breyer, Stevens, and Souter seem to think the Supreme Court should have gone ahead and determined whether the patent claimed “a monopoly over a basic scientific relationship.”  Not only do they think the court should have decided the matter, Justice Breyer goes on record telling you how he feels the case should have been decided.  It’s not difficult to see which side of the coin he is on considering the following statements pulled from his opinion:

“too much patent protection can impede rather than “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts”

“patents do not only encourage research by providing monetary incentives for invention.  Sometimes their presence can discourage research by impeding free exchange of information.”

With all sides battling it out on patent reform, does it seem that with Congress and the Supreme Court there’s a lot of talk…and no action?

Read the decision here.

Posted by Laura Wood at 01:26 PM.
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