BARTKO ZANKEL BUNZEL REPORT

The Line Between Bio and Technology: While Supreme Court Remains Silent, Federal Circuit Provides More Positive Guidance Regarding Patentability of Biotechnology

The question of what the biotechnology industry can patent ripened into a broad industry debate after two landmark Supreme Court decisions – Mayo Collaborative Servs v. Prometheus Labs., Inc. (2012) and Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International (2014).  Their collective holding – that under 35 U.S.C. § 101, inherently natural phenomena cannot be patented, even with the addition of previously known secondary technologies – led to the invalidation of numerous patents and likely narrowed the scope of what can be patented in the future.

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