Team:Macquarie Australia/Outreach/Law

SynBio & AUS Law

Australian legal scholarship has discussed synthetic biology, in particular, the potential to patents genes, for almost a decade. The U.S. Myriad decision, ruling that genes are not valid subjects for patents, posed a challenge to Australian legal scholars; Australia allowed domestic patenting of genes, specifically, Myriad's patent of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer risk factor genes. This decision was in disagreement with prior Australian case law, which considered genes to be a valid object for a patent. In July 2014, the D'Arcy case appealed this issue to the High Court, testing the Myriad reasoning in Australian courts. The Macquarie University iGEM team therefore has identified the need to review and provide a summary of Australian patent law in light of the new authority on the subject.

The Macquarie iGEM team urges the Australian Parliament to extend the exemption to patent regarding genes to commercial use of human genes, to ensure the best medical care is accessible to all Australians at an affordable cost.