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D'Arcy v Myriad Genetics Inc [2015] HCA 35: The plurality's new factorial approach to patentability rearticulates the question asked in NRDC

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posted on 2023-05-19, 01:48 authored by Bartlett, W
This case note analyses the High Court's recent landmark decision in D'Arcy v Myriad Genetics Inc [2015] HCA 35. In three separate judgments ultimately united on the result, the High Court held that patent claims to isolated human DNA used in testing for breast cancer were not a 'manner of manufacture' within the meaning of s 6 of the Statute of Monopolies. The claims were therefore not patent-eligible subject matter in Australia. It is submitted that the plurality's new factorial approach to patentability for new classes of claims rearticulates the approach propounded in the High Court's seminal decision in NRDC. D'Arcy's new guiding factors therefore rea1ign the subject matter inquiry with its true nature, which turns on, in the plurality's words, the 'historically contingent concepts of patent and invention'. The note concludes by examining three of the most pressing consequences of D'Arcy's reasoning for Australian patent law.

History

Publication title

Journal of Law, Information and Science

Volume

24

Pagination

120-143

ISSN

0729-1485

Department/School

Faculty of Law

Publisher

Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania

Place of publication

Australia

Rights statement

Copyright 2016 The Author

Repository Status

  • Open

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Expanding knowledge in law and legal studies

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