Patent

Intriguing: a lawsuit involving my disease paved the way for the patenting of genetic sequences and engineered organisms:

In 1976 a patient at the University of California medical center began treatment for hairy-cell leukemia. The doctors recognized that his blood might have special properties for the treatment of leukemia and, in 1981, they were granted a patent in the name of the University of California on a T-cell line — that is, a sequence of genetic information — developed from the patient's blood; the potential value of the products derived from it was estimated at three billion dollars. The patient sued the university for ownership of the T cells and the genetic information, but the California Supreme Court ruled against him. The court reasoned that the University of California was the rightful owner of the cell line because a naturally occurring organism (on which his claim rests) is not patentable, whereas the information scientists derive from it is patentable because it is the result of human ingenuity. (Hardt & Negri, Multitude, 183.)

The landmark case was John Moore v. the Regents of the University of California.