Submission + - Supreme Court Limits Patents Based on Laws of Nature
sed quid in infernos writes: The Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion yesterday holding that “to transform an unpatentable law of nature into a patent-eligible application of such a law, a patent must do more than simply state the law of nature while adding the words ‘apply it.’” The Court invalidated a patent on the process of adjusting medication dosage based on the levels of specific metabolites in the patient’s blood.
The opinion sets forth a “process for determining patent eligibility for patent claims that include a law of nature. The court wrote that the 'additional features' that show an application of the law must 'provide practical assurance that the [claimed] process is more than a drafting effort.' This language suggests that the burden will be on the patentee to prove that its limitations are more than patent attorney tricks.”
The opinion sets forth a “process for determining patent eligibility for patent claims that include a law of nature. The court wrote that the 'additional features' that show an application of the law must 'provide practical assurance that the [claimed] process is more than a drafting effort.' This language suggests that the burden will be on the patentee to prove that its limitations are more than patent attorney tricks.”
