Intellectual property – Patents – Patents Act 1990 (Cth) – Patentable subject matter – Patent claimed isolated nucleic acid coding for BRCA1 protein with specified mutations or polymorphisms indicative of susceptibility to cancer – Whether invention claimed is a patentable invention under s 18(1)(a) of Patents Act 1990 (Cth) – Whether invention claimed is a "manner of manufacture" within meaning of s 6 of Statute of Monopolies – Whether sufficient that invention claimed is artificially created state of affairs of economic significance – Utility of "artificially created state of affairs" criterion – Factors relevant to whether new class of claim falls within concept of manner of manufacture.
Words and phrases – "artificially created state of affairs", "isolated nucleic acid", "manner of manufacture", "naturally occurring", "patentable invention", "product of nature".
Patents Act 1990 (Cth) – ss 18(1)(a), 40(2)(b).
Statute of Monopolies (21 Jac I c 3) – s 6.
Judgment date
Case number
S28/2015
Before
French CJ, Kiefel, Bell, Gageler, Keane, Nettle, Gordon JJ
Catchwords