Two US Supreme Court decisions concerning DNA and genes have created debate.

The US Supreme Court in Maryland v. King, has held that collecting the DNA of detainees who are not convicted is constitutional.

US Police departments have been collecting a “DNA database” of arrestees, suspects, and persons of interest for probably longer than we know. Is is known that the police force witnesses to provide DNA to prove their innocence or file felony charges and then offer plea bargains to defendants in exchange for their genetic information.

Thailand Patent Lawyer

In Association for Molecular Pathology vs Myriad Genetics, the US Supreme Court debated whether genes could be patented and sat somewhat on the fence deciding: you can’t if they are naturally occurring, and the gene was only “discovered”; however an invented synthetic gene, can be patented.

And with that, we offer you this thought: if police obtain DNA from a suspect who has been treated with a patented synthetic DNA, is the police seizure of that DNA a violation of the proprietary rights of the patentee company?  In other words, can the arrestee object to the DNA test as not having authority to surrender the DNA because of non-ownership?

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