Patent Law | Expert Legal Commentary
February 19, 2010
Prometheus Labs v. Mayo: Preserving Patentability of Medical Diagnostics
Prometheus Labs, Inc. v. Mayo Collaborative Servs.
By
Olivier A. Taillieu of Zuber & Taillieu and Yuri Mikulka
The Federal Circuit has preserved patent-eligibility for medical diagnostics testing, finding that the administration of drugs and determination of resulting chemical levels can meet the machine-or-transformation test set forth in In re Bilski. In Prometheus Labs, Inc. v. Mayo Collaborative Servs., 581 F.3d 1336 (Fed. Cir. 2009), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that the diagnostic test at issue was transformative in nature and not merely the recitation of unpatentable natural processes. The Federal Circuit’s allowance of patent protection for such tests, most often used in the developing field of personalized medicine, is not secure, however, due to pending U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
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About the Author
Olivier A. Taillieu is a Partner of Zuber & Taillieu, focusing on intellectual property litigation and arbitration.
Image Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/DigitalZombie
