The Australian Patent Office (IP Australia) has issued final
patent eligibility guidance under the Australian High Court's
decision in D'Arcy v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. Where the
USPTO extrapolated from the U.S. Supreme Court decision when it
promulgated its patent eligibility guidance, IP Australia seems to
have taken a more conservative approach. This means that despite
similar rulings against the patent eligibility of Myriad's BRCA
DNA claims, it may be possible to patent subject matter in
Australia that no longer can be patented in the U.S.
D'Arcy v. Myriad Genetics
In D'Arcy v. Myriad Genetics, the High Court of
Australia decided that Myriad's claims to the isolated BRCA1
gene did not constitute "a manner of manufacture" that
could be patented in Australia. In reaching its decision, the court
focused on the idea that the claimed DNA embodies "the same
information as contained in the DNA of the person from which the
nucleic acid was isolated," and also expressed
