All nine U.S. Supreme Court justices ruled to prohibit patents on genes extracted from the human body, Reuters reports. However, the ruling allows patents on cDNA (“c” for “complementary”), which is not naturally occurring. The ruling does not affect method patents, which cover the technical procedures of a process. The compromise was the result of a challenge by medical researchers and others against seven patents from Myriad Genetics Inc. on two genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer.

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