This will conclude a lawsuit that was filed on 12 May 2009, in the Federal District Court for Southern New

on patents underlying genetic testing for inherited risk for breast and ovarian cancer attributable to 2 genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2. The patents enabled Myriad Genetics (Salt Lake City, Utah) to establish a service monopoly on such testing in the United States, with rights extending to clin-ical research and follow-up testing in cases of ambiguous results that Myriad does not authorize or perform itself. These patents have been highly controversial for more than 15 years (2). The lawsuit is an unusual patent case in several re-spects. Most of these suits pit one company or inventor against another and center on who will get and enforce exclusive patent rights. This particular case is about chang-ing the law by challenging whether patents on genes should be granted at all. The American Civil Liberties Union or-ganized and litigated the case, with the Public Patent Foundation affiliated with Cardozo Law School in New York. It is the Union’s first venture into patent law and the first public interest patent case in the United States. The initial plaintiffs were individuals and organiza-tions who objected to Myriad’s patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Plaintiffs included women who wanted test-ing done, physicians who wanted to test patients, and lab-oratory directors who wanted to offer BRCA testing. Other plaintiffs were organizations representing laboratory profes-sionals, clinical geneticists, and breast cancer advocates