Download This PaperPatent-Ineligible Methods of Treatment
Janice M. Mueller, Patent-Ineligible Methods of Treatment, in MUELLER ON PATENT LAW, VOL. I (PATENTABILITY AND VALIDITY) (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business 2012), last revised October 2015
12 Pages Posted: 7 Oct 2015
Date Written: October 3, 2015
Abstract
The Supreme Court’s sweeping 2012 decision in Mayo Collaborative Servs. v. Prometheus Labs., Inc. was soon to impact the medical diagnostics research community beyond the parties to Mayo. In the view of this author, the Mayo framework created the potential for (presumably) unintended negative consequences that may chill future medical diagnostic research (an issue raised by Prometheus and various amici in Mayo). The Federal Circuit’s June 2015 decision in in Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc. v. Sequenom, Inc., aptly illustrates the concern. Compelled by the Supreme Court’s broad language defining the second step of the Mayo framework, the Federal Circuit in Ariosa affirmed the invalidation under §101 of a groundbreaking patent on prenatal testing.
Keywords: patent, patent eligible subject matter, validity, methods of treatment, medical diagnostics
JEL Classification: K19, K29, K39, K41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation