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IP News

By Jeff Ginsberg and Zhiqiang Liu
May 01, 2019

 

Federal Circuit Declines to Follow Patent Office's Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance In Affirming Trial Court's Decision That Claims Are Directed to Patent-Ineligible Subject Matter

On April 1, 2019, a Federal Circuit panel consisting of Judge Lourie, Judge Moore and Judge Wallach issued a unanimous, nonprecedential opinion, authored by Judge Lourie, in Cleveland Clinic Found. v. True Health Diagnostics LLC, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 9451 (Fed. Cir. 2019). Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Cleveland Heartlab, Inc. (together, Cleveland) appealed the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia's decision that the claims at issue were directed to patent-ineligible subject matter. Because the district court correctly concluded that the claims are directed to a natural law and recite no other inventive concept, the panel affirmed.

Cleveland sued True Health Diagnostics LLC (True Health) for infringement of two related patents, asserting claims that are directed to methods of detecting an elevated myeloperoxidase (MPO) concentration in a plasma sample from a human subject with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ACVD). Slip Op. at 6-7. In granting True Health's Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the district court found the asserted claims patent-ineligible as directed to a natural law under 35 U.S.C. §101 and dismissed Cleveland's complaint for failure to state a claim. Slip Op. at 7.

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