Several Supreme Court justices seemed sympathetic to claims that genes themselves do not warrant patent protection during arguments Monday in a landmark intellectual property case that could determine whether genes should be in the public domain.

But during the arguments in Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. Myriad Genetics, the justices repeatedly took refuge in metaphors of baseball bats and chocolate-chip cookies rather than the hard science of DNA.

The case, which could have big implications throughout the biotech industry and the growing field of genomics, involves Myriad’s patents on two of the most famous human genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2. Mutations in those genes have been linked to much a higher risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Scientists at Myriad were the first to isolate the genes. The company patented them in 1996 and has since enjoyed a monopoly on them as the only company that can provide a test for the mutations.

Most of the justices appeared comfortable with the idea of patenting methods for isolating genes, or applications of those genes, but much less so with the patenting of the genes themselves.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she could create a new chocolate-chip cookie but expressed skepticism that she could patent the […]