A federal judge in Minnesota ruled last week that routine genetic testing for dogs, like that for humans, can’t be patented. The ruling was celebrated by Spokane-based Paw Print Genetics, a laboratory that tests for genetic diseases in dogs.

Paw Print had asked the court to decide on the matter after another lab claimed the Spokane company infringed on its patent. At issue is a genetic test for a disorder called exercise-induced collapse, which both labs offer.

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim found that the patent held by Canine EIC Genetics, of St. Paul, Minnesota, is invalid because it’s “directed at a natural law and because it does not introduce any additional inventive concept beyond well-understood, routine, and conventional methods for determining whether the EIC mutation exists in a dog.” That lab is affiliated with the University of Minnesota.

That follows recent cases before the U.S. Supreme Court evaluating patents on genetic tests for humans. Tunheim noted that the test of whether a genetic mutation is protected by patent laws “is analyzed the same way, irrespective of whether that test is used on humans or dogs.”

Lisa Shaffer, founder and CEO of Paw Print Genetics, said the ruling is “very positive for us.”

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