Public interest groups, known for advocating for human rights and civil liberties, are now playing an increasingly important role in the world of intellectual property law.
This was clearly demonstrated last week when the American Civil Liberties Union, together with the Public Patent Foundation, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate patents held by Myriad Genetics Inc. on two genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. A week earlier, the Electronic Frontier Foundation joined up with the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at Berkeley Law School, urging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to conduct a reexamination of a patent for a system that tracks vehicles’ locations.
