Event Session
Panel #4 – Patent Eligibility: Train or Light at the End of the Tunnel?
October 17, 2023 @ 9:15 AM EST
9:15 AM ET
October 17, 2023
Panel #4 – Patent Eligibility: Train or Light at the End of the Tunnel?
With the Supreme Court continually refusing certiorari on issued of patent eligibility it seems there is little hope for relief for life sciences companies in the courts.
With the evolution of the law of patent eligibility we seem to be at a place where every invention that embodies, uses, reflects, rests upon or applies scientific laws is patent ineligible? Given the Federal Circuit’s interpretation of Myriad and Mayo, medical diagnostics are by and large no longer patent eligible. And despite the fact that the word “discoveries” appears in both the U.S. Constitution and in the Patent Act itself as the type of thing that can be and should be protected, discoveries are not patent eligible today in the United States.
Meanwhile, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) introduced the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2022, S.4734, which would amend the U.S. Patent Act to clarify the application of 35 U.S.C. Section 101 to certain technologies. Most specifically, PERA would do away with judicial exceptions to patent eligibility and allow only for statutory exceptions, which would be limited to the following:
1. A mathematical formula that is not part of an invention.
2. A mental process performed solely in the mind of a human being.
3. An unmodified human gene, as that gene exists in the human body.
4. An unmodified natural material, as that material exists in nature.
5. A process that is substantially economic, financial, business and can practically be performed without a machine.
Among other things, this list specifically and unambiguously overrules Mayo and Myriad.
So, where do we go from here? What does the future of the life sciences industry look like in the United States? Will there be a patent eligibility fix that can pass in Congress? What can and should innovators do to get through both the USPTO and survive in the courts?
Survey
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/patent-eligibility
With the Supreme Court continually refusing certiorari on issued of patent eligibility it seems there is little hope for relief for life sciences companies in the courts. With the evolution of the law of patent eligibility we seem to be at a place where every invention that embodies, uses, reflects, rests upon or applies scientific laws is patent ineligible? Given…
Session Speakers
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