Nestle, Icann, Yahoo!, ‘South Park’: Intellectual Property

U.S. Supreme Court justices grappled with the reach of federal patent law, touching on both fire-building techniques and Albert Einstein’s discoveries during arguments over diagnostic medical tests.

Yesterday’s one-hour session, which centered on a dispute between Nestle SA’s Prometheus unit and the Mayo Clinic, produced few clear answers. The justices sought to draw what proved to be a fine line between natural phenomena, which can’t be patented, and applications of those principles, which can be.