Posts Tagged: "patentable subject matter"

If Exceptions to 101 Are Codified, Patent Eligibility Chaos Will Be Worse

The Framework rolled out by Congress last week to fix Section 101 law in the United States will not improve the current 101 disaster. It codifies current exceptions and even adds an entirely new exception specifically intended to protect big tech monopolies. Congress is pitifully unserious about restoring our innovation engine. For more than 200 years, the U.S. patent system was the primary engine propelling the United States to lead the world in virtually every new technology. But over the last 15 years, activists in Congress, the courts and the administration pulverized this engine to benefit a few huge multinationals in exchange for political donations and favors. Today, the patent system is a complete failure causing technologies critical to our economy, job creation, global technological lead, and national security to flee the U.S. and go to China. In a brutal political irony, the Communist Chinese have a better property rights system than we do here in the U.S.

Reactions Roll in On Congress’s Proposed 101 Framework: ‘The Right Approach’ or ‘A Swing and a Miss’?

Yesterday, members of congress announced in a press release a proposed framework to fix patent eligibility law in the United States.Reactions to the framework were mixed. While many are delighted that the issue seems to be getting real attention on Capitol Hill, others are skeptical of some of the proposals. For example, Russ Slifer, former Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), described the framework as “a big swing and a miss.” Having attended the meeting on the Hill yesterday in which the framework was released and discussed prior to being circulated to the public, Todd Dickinson of Polsinelli, and the former USPTO Director, said that he can understand how those seeing the proposal without having taken part in the dialogue might be alarmed. “There are still some big questions to answer, but I left the meeting encouraged by the momentum,” Dickinson told IPWatchdog. The discussion, which he described as decidedly “more lawyerly” than previous meetings on the topic, included staffers for both the House and Senate, and from both political parties, which “is a good sign that there is a continued intention to do something,” he said.

Change May Be Coming: Members of Congress Release Framework to Fix Patent Eligibility Law

In a promising indication that there is real momentum on The Hill to fix Section 101 law, several Senators and Representatives today proposed a framework for addressing 101-related patent reform.Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE)—respectively, Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property—and Representatives Doug Collins (R-GA-9), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee; Hank Johnson (D-GA-4), Chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet; and Steve Stivers (R-OH-15) announced earlier today indicating that “months of hard work by the Senators and Representatives has led to this bipartisan, bicameral framework.” IPWatchdog has been reporting for some time that closed-door meetings have been held with stakeholders and members of congress to gather information on the problems with patent eligibility law. IPWatchdog also has been told that the relevant members of congress intend to hold regular public hearings on the topic beginning soon. “I think it’s wise for congress to hit the reset button and reassert its authority with respect to the statutory requirements, and getting rid of the non-statutory judicial exceptions is an absolute must,” said Gene Quinn, patent attorney and President and CEO of IPWatchdog, Inc. “I just hope that whatever the ultimate statutory language is, it is very carefully limited and narrowly tailored; and I must confess that it worries me a little that the framework says that reciting generic language won’t be enough to save an otherwise ineligible claim.”

Invest Pic v. SAP America, Inc. Amicus Brief Takes on CAFC’s ‘Physical Realm’ Test

Among the seven amicus curiae briefs filed Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court in InvestPic, LLC, v. SAP America, Inc., Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund’s brief argues that the case demands a hearing because the Federal Circuit has added yet another extra-statutory test to the already distorted patentability jurisprudence. In a decision of May 15, 2018 authored by Judge Taranto, the Federal Circuit found the patent claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,349,291 invalid because they were directed to an abstract idea and lacked an inventive concept necessary to save the invention under 35 U.S.C. § 101. In the course of its opinion, the Federal Circuit created a “physical realm” test, which is nowhere to be found in 35 U.S. Code Section 101, having been wholly conjured by judges.

Patent Eligibility of Medical Diagnostic Inventions: Where Are We Now, and Where Are We Headed?

In each of the recent Federal Circuit decisions on medical diagnostics inventions, Athena Diagnostics v. Mayo Collaborative Services, 2017-2508, (Fed. Cir. Feb. 6, 2019) (“Athena”) and Cleveland Clinic Found. v. True Health Diagnostics LLC, 2018-1218 (Fed. Cir. April 1, 2019; non-precedential) (“Cleveland Clinic II”), the court affirmed a district court ruling that found a medical diagnostic or a related patent invalid for being directed to ineligible subject matter. Athena and Cleveland Clinic II follow the hard stance taken by the Federal Circuit against medical diagnostics inventions, first in Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc. v. Sequenom, Inc., 788 F.3d 1371, 1376 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (“Ariosa”) and next in Cleveland Clinic Found. v. True Health Diagnostics LLC, 859 F.3d 1352, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (“Cleveland Clinic I”). In Athena, the patent covered a method for diagnosing a disease in a subpopulation of affected individuals based on the discovery of a correlation between the disease and certain autoantibodies found only in that subpopulation. In Cleveland Clinic I, the patent claims were directed to diagnosing the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) based on the correlation between elevated levels of a protein found in the blood and occurrence of atherosclerotic CVD. In Cleveland Clinic II, the claims were directed to methods of identifying elevated levels of the protein but did not include any recitation of the correlation…. The requirement for an improvement to the technology involved in carrying out the claimed method is a steep hurdle for the eligibility of most medical diagnosis inventions, since the essence of such inventions is applying a newly discovered correlation to deliver a practical benefit—not improving the technology used to provide the diagnosis. In this regard, medical diagnostic inventions are unique. This point was highlighted by the Athena dissent through reference to the amici curiae Five Life Sciences Patent Practitioners’ brief, which stated, “[medical] diagnostic methods . . . are so tightly bound to underlying natural laws and phenomen[a], they are especially susceptible to undue expansion of the eligibility standards…” Athena Dissenting opinion at 13.