The Minnesota health center says it was forced to drop a potentially valuable diagnostic test and delay publication of an article after Prometheus sued it for violating a patent so sweeping that it prohibits researchers from even thinking about the process Prometheus claims to have invented.
The tug-of-war over Article 18 has become a virility test for the Berlusconi government, which has so far not lived up to most of its bold electoral promises.
He told BBC News that the journal article described everything needed to establish the test in a forensic lab, but that the team was also in touch with industry regarding their knowledge about hair and eye colour prediction.