Supreme Court does the right thing -- More or less

Supreme Court Ruled Genes can't be Patented

And so one of the more hopeful nuggets in a sea of pro-corporatist and pro-rent seeking decisions is todays almost theological rendering of the court against patenting genes. My only problem is that animal and plant genes shouldn't be patented either. At least not without strong caveats to prevent the kind of behavior where a company like Monsanto sues down-wind farmers oppressively because they can't contain their genes in their sold product. Patenting genes and other intellectual property grabbing is mostly unjustified usurpation of the commons. The decision was unanimous but the fight isn't over:

"The justices took the position offered by the Obama administration -- DNA itself is not patentable but so-called "cDNA" can be. Complementary DNA is artificially synthesized from the genetic template, and engineered to produce gene clones."

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/politics/scotus-genes/index.html?on.cnn=1