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Gene patent holders, including Myriad, had long argued that the mere act of isolating a piece of DNA from a genome was enough modification for a patent claim, because isolation requires severing the chemical bonds that tether the gene to its surroundings.

With the ruling, "labs can begin to offer this testing immediately and many say they will," said Ellen Matloff, head of cancer genetic counseling at Yale Cancer Center and one of many academic scientists who tried to have patients tested for breast cancer genes only to be told it would violate a gene patent.

"For human medical applications, that prototypical gene patent is a thing of the past," said Hans Sauer, general counsel at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which sided with defendant Myriad Genetics in the case.

The impact of the decision on other companies may depend on exactly how gene patent claims are worded.

Cookies, leaves, and baseball bats—just some of the metaphors that Supreme Court justices suggested this week as they struggled to understand the complex science behind the Myriad gene patent case.