The president hailed the directors of the publicly funded Human Genome Project for requiring its researchers to put gene sequence data directly into the public domain every 24 hours. He urged other public and private players to do likewise, but the number of such players is small, and they are under no new compulsion to follow through on an action several of them (notably Rockville-based Celera Inc.) already had said they will take.

White House advisers, perhaps looking to reassure jittery investors, were careful to draw a distinction between the basic chemical sequence of the genome, which they called unpatentable, and the 100,000 genes that can be extracted from that sequence and that actually control body functions. Many of the latter--possibly as many as 70,000--are under patent application by private companies. The real argument, which the president sidestepped, is about how many of those patents should be granted and what standard should be applied in making those decisions.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is tightening its rules on how much must be known about a gene's function before it can be patented. But many fear the new rules are still too loose, which could allow the lion's share of genes to end up in the private sector before their function is properly understood. Access to them for further research could then be significantly impeded. The White House skipped a chance to send a clearer message to the patent office at a moment when that could have made a difference.

© 2000 The Washington Post Company

###