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DIGITAL HEALTH ISSUES OF PATENTABILITY Recent changes in US patent law have made protecting and enforcing patents directed to digital healthcare inventions more challenging, as Marsha Gillentine and Michelle Holoubek of Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox explain. igital healthcare, the confluence of amount to “significantly more“ than the abstract medical and other biological fields idea, such that all uses in the abstract idea are not Dwith digital technology, is a vital part of pre-empted. patient treatment and healthcare management. Much of the confusion surrounding software- This article discusses five of the current top based claims is due to the first part of the test, intellectual property concerns for digital since there has been no guidance regarding how healthcare companies. to properly define an abstract idea. The Supreme Court explicitly declined to provide this guidance 1. Will the changes in US software in the Alice decision, and the federal circuit has WH[LU[SH^HќLJ[`V\Y07& not offered clear guidance on this point either. On June 19, 2014, the US Supreme Court issued What does this mean for patent applicants its decision in Alice Corp v CLS Bank, holding and owners? For starters, that a review of that computerised abstract patent ideas are not your existing IP may be needed to make sure patent-eligible. The post-Alice patent world has that no eligibility issues have arisen due to been filled with uncertainty and understandable the current (and retroactive) flux in the law. fears regarding the patent eligibility of software For new IP, additional details about specific patent claims. implementations, advantages that differentiate Digital healthcare companies have not your invention from the state of the art, and been spared this angst, since much of their examples may all be useful in mitigating innovation is protected by software patents eligibility challenges down the road. and patent applications. Even when the underlying innovation is truly new and unique, 2. Do US patent law changes a patent cannot be granted if the invention is not about “naturally occurring” or considered the type that is ‘eligible’ for patenting. “natural phenomenon” subject Whether innovations implemented in software TH[[LYHќLJ[`V\Y07& are ‘eligible’ is currently an open question In addition to considering whether changes in ANDREY BURMAKIN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM without clear guidance from the US Patent and software patent law affect a digital healthcare Trademark Office (USPTO) or courts. company’s IP, certain digital healthcare The Alice decision, as well as later decisions companies, such as diagnostic companies from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal or pharmaceutical companies developing a Circuit, applies a two-part test for eligibility to companion diagnostic test, must also evaluate software-based claims. In the first part of the test, US patent law changes about naturally occurring a patent claim is analysed to determine whether or natural phenomenon subject matter. it recites an abstract idea. In the second part In 2013, the Supreme Court found in of the test, the claim is analysed to determine Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad whether additional elements in the claim Genetics that claims to an “isolated DNA” are www.lifesciencesipreview.com Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review Conference Special 41 DIGITAL HEALTH not patentable because “a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent-eligible merely because it has been isolated”. Th erefore, claims to a particular gene sequence, unmodifi ed from its natural state, are not patent-eligible. Additionally, the federal circuit in In re BRCA1- and BRCA2-Based Hereditary Cancer Test Patent Litigation found that a primer pair was patent-ineligible because “[t]hey are structurally identical to the ends of DNA strands found in nature” even though the gene sequences at issue were synthetically replicated. Furthermore, correlations involving a “law of nature” are not patentable subject matter. Th e Supreme Court in Mayo Collaborative Services v Prometheus Laboratories found that claims directed to correlating blood levels with a dose of the active pharmaceutical ingredient were not patentable subject matter. Th e Supreme Court found that these method claims were not patent-eligible because the relationship between metabolite concentration and optimised dosage was a “law of nature”. Th is decision suggests that claims directed to diagnostic assays may “UNDER THE TWO-PART TEST PROVIDED not constitute patentable subject matter under certain circumstances. BY THE USPTO, A CLAIM IS ELIGIBLE IF THE Although not law, the USPTO’s guidelines are NATURE-BASED PRODUCT LIMITATION EXHIBITS informative about what the USPTO considers ‘MARKEDLY DIFFERENT’ CHARACTERISTICS FROM ITS to be patent-eligible subject matter. Under the two-part test provided by the USPTO, a claim NATURALLY OCCURRING COUNTERPART.” is eligible if the nature-based product limitation exhibits “markedly diff erent” characteristics ANDREY BURMAKIN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM from its naturally occurring counterpart. For example, an isolated nucleic acid such steps, for example in a label accompanying a employed to ensure that the physician performs comprising a sequence with at least 90% pharmaceutical product. Th erefore, patent owners the treatment step. Th erefore, claims should identity to a naturally found sequence, but may rely on inducement to obtain a fi nding of be draft ed with an eye toward only one party containing at least one non-naturally occurring liability for infringement of a method claim. To performing or directing all the recited steps. genetic substitution, is eligible because the establish inducement, direct infringement by structural differences between the non- another party must be established. 4. Can innovation be kept as a natural variant and the natural counterpart are An example of an invention performed [YHKLZLJYL[& markedly different. by multiple parties would be a patent claim Since fi ling a patent application requires Additionally, an isolated nucleic acid with an comprising a fi rst step to assay for a particular disclosing the “crown jewels” to the public in attached fl uorescent label is eligible because the biomarker (performed by a laboratory) followed exchange for a patent, many digital healthcare molecule has diff erent structural and functional by a second step to administer a particular companies prefer to keep their proprietary characteristics than the naturally occurring therapeutic dose based on the result of the algorithms secret. nucleic acid. biomarker assay (performed by a physician). A trade secret is something that is not Digital healthcare companies with inventions The Supreme Court in Limelight Networks generally known to the public but which gives involving a “naturally occurring” product or v Akamai Technologies, held a defendant a competitive edge or market advantage to the a “law of nature” must carefully draft claims in cannot be liable in the US for inducing holder of the secret. light of these decisions, as well as the USPTO’s infringement if two different parties perform Keeping a trade secret can be successful if all guidelines. To streamline prosecution, these different steps of a method patent, ie, of a company’s innovative processes and systems companies should consider explaining in the divided infringement, where direction and are performed in-house, and rigorous controls patent specifi cation how its product exhibits control is not established between the two are put in place to protect access to the processes “markedly diff erent” characteristics from its parties actually performing the method. and systems. For example, an analytics company naturally occurring counterpart. Therefore, claims and patent specifications might receive data from a partner, and then must be carefully drafted with these divided send back only the results of the analysis, so that 3. Divided infringement infringement issues in mind. the partner does not become privy to how the Competitor digital healthcare companies may not For example, a specifi cation should clarify that analysis is performed. perform all steps of a method claim themselves. a step directed to ascertaining the presence of a But relying on trade secret protection is not For example, in the pharmaceutical industry, biomarker is “performed” by a physician ordering without risk. Even if it could otherwise keep companies rarely perform method claim steps a test and not just by a laboratory carrying out the a secret, a digital healthcare company may themselves, but generally direct others to perform test. Moreover, appropriate language should be nonetheless have to disclose its processes to the 42 Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review Conference Special www.lifesciencesipreview.com DIGITAL HEALTH FDA or other organisations, to show that its any public disclosure of the invention before a inventor are provided. While digital healthcare results can be trusted or to allow independent patent application is filed will typically be fatal technology is exciting and rapidly advancing, validation of its results. to patentability. innovators should take action to protect their Also, if the commercial product is a software With the AIA, the US has now joined that innovation before publicly presenting the tool, or operates using software, the underlying club, although some grace periods specific to the information. Q code can often be reverse-engineered by competitors. So deciding whether your innovation
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