ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates various ethical problems resulting from the effect of patents in restricting access, is similar to that encountered with any life-saving invention, in particular of a food or medicine. The material was obtained with patient consent and appropriate ethics committee approval was obtained for the collection of the tissue. In 1995, Myriad Genetics, the University of Utah Research Foundation and the United States of America, The US National Institutes of Health had been involved in the research. In AMP v. USPTO, the Association for Molecular Pathology and others challenged fifteen claims in seven patents licensed to Myriad Genetics. The US Supreme Court has for over a century considered that laws and phenomena of nature are not patent-eligible. In terms of access, consent and patent-eligibility, patent law has clearly taken little notice of ethics. Finally, governments can be free to, and should accept their obligation to, override patents to protect the health and well-being of their citizens.
