Despite the appeals court's decision， big questions remain unanswered. For example， it is unclear whether the sequencing of a whole genome violates the patents of indivi dual genes within it. The case may yet reach the Supreme Court.

AS the industry advances ,however,other suits may have an even greater impact.companies are unlikely to file many more patents for human DNA molecules-most are already patented or in the public domain .firms are now studying how genes intcract,looking for correlations that might be used to determine the causes of disease or predict a drug’s efficacy,companies are eager to win patents for ‘connecting the dits’,expaa