The US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has proposed new patent guidelines for natural products and processes, raising concern that the standard is too strict. The revised guidelines follow two Supreme Court decisions involving Prometheus Laboratories and Myriad Genetics that denied patents based on the patent code’s forbiddance of patenting “laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas.” The new guidance requires that to be patented an invention be “significantly different” from any natural product. Critics contend that the Myriad ruling applied only to DNA that was isolated from nature. According to Bloomberg BNA, out of around one thousand applications submitted to the PTO since April 2011 for patents in this area, 40% have been denied. But many applications did gain approval after clarifying how the product differed from a natural product or process. The guidelines are open for comment until July 31.

Source: Nature