2003 Echoing Green Fellow Dan Ravicher and his organization The Public Patent Foundation, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, recently filed suit against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for granting patents on human genes.  They believe that by awarding patents on specific human genes to a single company, the trademark office is hindering the work of other researchers.  

This is shaping up to be a fascinating landmark case that’s being covered by CNN, Nature, and many other publications.