Submission to United States Patent and Trademark Office March 22, 2000 Submission in Response to Revised Interim Guidelines for Examination of Patent Applications

We respectfully submit that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the "PTO") has erroneously interpreted the principles of the US Patent Laws by issuing (or by issuing the Revised Interim Guidelines that evidence an intention to issue) composition of matter patents on naturally-occurring nucleotide sequences or on cDNA or expressed sequence tag ("EST") derivatives of such sequences. We believe the proper interpretation and application of the Patent Laws should cause the PTO to issue only process or method patents on discoveries related to the use of DNA and/or genes, and then only where such discoveries identify clearly and fully a novel use. On the other hand, we believe that composition of matter patents should not be issued for any DNA, particularly human DNA, nor for any related cDNA, EST or other nucleotide sequences, because such compounds exist in nature, have been identified and placed in the public domain for over 15 years, or otherwise are obvious to derive in light of the current technology.