Prometheus is best known for being the titan who, against the
wishes of Zeus, gave mankind the gift of fire. Prometheus is
also the name of a company that comes up with new diagnostic and
therapeutic products. Today, the Supreme Court heard arguments
in a patent dispute between Prometheus (the company) and Mayo
Collaborative Services about whether one of its products can be
patented. The echoes of ancient Greek mythology in the case name
may have inspired Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. In one of
his hypothetical questions to the Obama administration’s lawyer
about what processes can be patented, he referred back to one of
man’s earliest “discoveries”: So I have a great idea. You take
wood, you put it on a grate, you light it, and you get heat.
That .. recites a series of acts performed in the physical world
that transforms the subject of the process, the wood, to achieve
a useful result, which is heat. So I can get a patent for that?
The answer is no. “It’s not novel, and it’s obvious,” said
Solicitor Gene