Eligibility Ruling Provides ‘Fertile Ground’ for Patent Lawyers

The Federal Circuit’s decision reviving Illumina Inc.‘s fetal DNA test patents could give litigants two new avenues for argument in cases that turn on patent-eligibility.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s mixed rulings on exactly which inventions are eligible for patent protection has confused litigants. The court’s ruling in the case makes new distinctions that could be useful in cases involving biotech patents.

The decision creates a new category that can be used to save patents that could fall into the ineligible category of diagnostic tests and delves into an under-explored part of the U.S. Supreme ...