Why is it in news?

♤ US Supreme Court ruled that isolated human genes cannot be patented, a partial defeat for Myriad Genetics, a company that had been awarded patents on the so-called BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in the 1990s.

♤ But DNA molecules engineered by man -- including so-called "cDNAs" -- are eligible for patents.

♤ Company found an important and useful gene, but separating that gene from its surrounding genetic material is not an act of invention.