We thank Dr Richter for responding to our article “Continental drift? Do European clinical genetic testing laboratories have a patent problem?” [1]. Patents, and how they affect genetic testing laboratories and society, are vexed topics. Indeed, researchers from around the world have been studying and debating these topics for almost 20 years (see, e.g. [2, 3]). We, therefore, welcome and value Dr Richter’s perspective.

Our study—a large survey—was designed to gather information about whether European law should restrict the availability of gene-related patents. This question was prompted by recent United States Supreme Court decisions that narrowed patentability (for a review, see [4], for quantitative analyses of the decisions, see [5, 6]). We received data from 158 laboratories, after inviting ~806 to answer a survey about the impact patent rights were having on their clinical and research work.

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