A team of Sheridan Ross litigators, led by Benjamin Lieb, Robert Brunelli and Hiwot Covell have filed a Writ of Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of their client and DNA-related patent holder Genetic Technologies Ltd. (GTG) asking that the court now review and consider the recent split decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in recent related cases. The petition to the U.S. Supreme Court questions:
1. Whether the Federal Circuit properly concluded—in conflict with other decisions of the Federal Circuit and this Court—that the definition of a patent-ineligible concept under the Mayo/Alice framework may include both a natural phenomenon and an inventor’s ingenuity in applying that natural phenomenon to a new and useful purpose?
2. Whether a Rule 12(b)(6) motion may be properly granted based on patent-ineligibility—as the Federal Circuit determined in conflict with other Federal Circuit decisions—when the record plausibly demonstrates that the claimed process inventively applies a natural phenomenon for a new and useful purpose, the claimed process does not improperly preempt the natural phenomenon, and the claimed process is not routine and conventional?
GTG is the newest DNA-related patent holder to ask for U.S. Supreme Court review of patent eligibility when the invention applies to a natural phenomenon (Genetic Techs. Ltd. v. Merial LLC, U.S., No. 16-188).
Read the full Aug. 8, 2016 petition.
Read additional recent coverage from Bloomberg BNA and Reuters.