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Goodwin

Sens. Tillis and Coons Propose New Legislation Regarding Patentability Under § 101

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On June 22, 2023, Sens. Thom Tillis and Chris Coons proposed the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2023 (the Act). The new legislation is intended to clarify patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in view of the Supreme...more

Sunstein LLP

The Ongoing Saga of American Axle and Patent Eligibility

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On July 31, the Federal Circuit withdrew its opinion in American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc. v. Neapco Holdings LLC and provided a substitute opinion. The court’s goal was to clarify why a claim directed to manufacturing a...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

Guest Post -- Reconsidered: The Federal Circuit's Enfish Interpretation of Mayo-Alice

The esteemed authors of Patent Docs have written of the need to reconsider the Federal Circuit's approach to section 101 eligibility, given the court's latest expansion and en-banc vote on subject-matter eligibility in AAM v....more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

Is It Time for Federal Circuit to Rethink Its Subject Matter Eligibility Jurisprudence? 

The Federal Circuit's inchoate attempts to fashion a consistent, rational application of the Supreme Court's recent subject matter eligibility jurisprudence, while understandably Herculean in view of the difficulties inherent...more

Knobbe Martens

Natural Law and Nothing More

Knobbe Martens on

AMERICAN AXLE & MANUFACTURING v. NEAPCO HOLDINGS LLC - Before Dyk, Moore, and Taranto. Appeal from the District Court for the District of Delaware. Summary: Claims directed to a law of nature, without more, may not be...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

American Axle & Mfg. v. Neapco Holdings LLC (Fed. Cir. 2019)

Federal Circuit (Again) Hands Down Revised Opinion in Response to Petition for Rehearing - Recently the Federal Circuit has begun a practice of withdrawing an original opinion and handing down a substitute opinion in...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

Illumina, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2020)

Federal Circuit Hands Down Modified Opinion in Illumina, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc. Earlier this year, the Federal Circuit (somewhat surprisingly) found claims of two Sequenom patents directed to methods for...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

The Three Properties of Patent-Eligibility: An Empirical Study

Patent eligibility is a bit of a mess these days.  Ever since the Supreme Court handed down the Alice v. CLS Bank decision six years ago, the distinction between what might be subject matter that can be patented and what is...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Patent Prosecution Tool Kit: Summary of Subject Matter Eligibility: Biotech/Pharma Inventions

It has nearly been ten years since the Supreme Court’s landmark Mayo v. Prometheus (132 S.Ct. 1289 (2012)) decision, in which the Court established a two-prong test for determining patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §...more

Fox Rothschild LLP

Illumina v. Ariosa: Carving Out A New “Bucket” Of Section 101 Patent Eligible Claims

Fox Rothschild LLP on

Case Summary- On March 17, 2020, the Federal Circuit found that patents claiming methods of preparing an extracellular fraction of cell-free DNA that is enriched in fetal DNA were patent eligible and not invalid under 35...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

USPTO Assesses the Impact of Patent Eligibility's Changing Landscape

In a post-truth world, it is more tempting than ever to evaluate data based on gut instinct, intuition, and anecdotal evidence.  It is thus refreshing when results of a robust statistical analysis are published, even if the...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

A Method of Diagnostic Sample Preparation Is Held Valid Under Mayo/Myriad, but the Diagnostic Test Was Held Invalid

Nearly five years ago the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) decided the controversial case of Ariosa v. Sequenom. In Sequenom the invention was a radically new method of fetal genetic testing by amplifying...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Section 101 Update: Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences March 2020

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This month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has handed down a pair of opinions concerning Section 101 in the field of pharmaceuticals and life sciences. In both cases, the district courts held claims of the...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

Illumina, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2020)

The latest Federal Circuit decision on subject matter eligibility in the life sciences came down (by a divided court) in favor of eligibility, in Illumina, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc.  The claims at issue fell into the...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

CareDX, Inc. v. Natera, Inc. (D. Del. 2020)

Ever since the Supreme Court's decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories was handed down in 2012, diagnostic method claims have been routinely invalidated by the district courts and those decisions...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Global Patent Prosecution - December 2019: Prosecuting Bioinformatics Patent Applications in the United States

This article discusses challenges in prosecuting bioinformatics patent applications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Bioinformatics generally refers to an interdisciplinary field in which computer...more

Knobbe Martens

Federal Circuit Review - October 2019

Knobbe Martens on

The PTAB Cannot Approve or Deny Certificates of Correction - In Honeywell International, Inc. v. Arkema Inc., Arkema France, Appeal Nos. 2018-1151, -1153, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) does not have the...more

Sunstein LLP

Federal Circuit Astonishingly Invalidates Manufacturing Method Patent…

Sunstein LLP on

In a breathtaking decision, the Federal Circuit has ruled that a patented method of making an automobile drive shaft is not eligible to be patented because it is “directed to a natural law.” In so ruling, the court has...more

Knobbe Martens

Effect of USPTO’s October 2019 101 Guidance

Knobbe Martens on

The USPTO has released updated subject matter eligibility guidance that incorporates comments on the changes made in January 2019.The guidance is 22 pages long, with three appendices and 87 footnotes. Below are a few of the...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Doggonit: Method for Detecting Genetic Mutation Found Subject Matter Ineligible

McDermott Will & Emery on

In a case relating to methods for genotyping a canine breed, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a district court’s judgment as a matter of law that the asserted claims were not subject matter eligible...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Federal Circuit Ruling Kills Labrador Retriever Genotyping Patent

Holland & Knight LLP on

The Federal Circuit provided an undesirable reminder to The University of Bern (and many other patent owners): a positive and valuable contribution does not necessarily equate to patentable subject matter. Here, the Court...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Detecting Disease Is Not a “Tangible and Useful Result” Eligible for Patenting

The federal appeals court with jurisdiction over questions of patent law has consistently held that methods of diagnosing a disease or other biological condition violate the Supreme Court’s ban on patenting “natural...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Global Patent Prosecution - June 2019: A Useful Roadmap for Claiming Cannabis Inventions

On April 17, 2019, U.S. District Judge William Martinez of the District of Colorado upheld the subject matter eligibility of United Cannabis Corporation’s (“UCANN”) patent claims covering liquid cannabinoid formulations....more

Snell & Wilmer

Legislators Propose Patent Eligibility Overhaul

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In April, we posted an article titled “Section 101 in 2019” summarizing the existing patent eligibility test, discussing recent Federal Circuit decisions, and providing practical strategies for practitioners to navigate the...more

Sunstein LLP

May 2019 IP Update: Bipartisan Legislation Develops to Remove Supreme Court Roadblocks to Biotechnology and Computer Science...

Sunstein LLP on

On April 17, 2019, Senators Tillis (R-NC) and Coons (D-DE), along with a bipartisan group of three members of the House of Representatives, announced the release of a framework on Section 101 patent reform. Senators Tillis...more

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