Pandemic Lays Bare Fight Over Patent Strength, Innovation

When a patent licensing firm sued bioMerieux SA, a French company developing coronavirus tests, over old Theranos testing patents, the Electronic Frontier Foundation called it an example of patent exclusivity rights “standing in the way of innovation.”

That same month, the Naples Roundtable asked the patent office to designate as precedent two Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions allowing claims on medical inventions. Both inventions had previously been found to cover subject matter ineligible for patenting.

Making the decisions precedential would “promote innovation in the life sciences and encourage a robust response to public health challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic,” ...