For companies in the life sciences industry, the scope of patent
eligibility continued its apparently inexorable contraction in
2017. Inventions deemed ineligible for patenting included methods
for assessing cardiovascular risk based on myeloperoxidase levels
— despite the existence of prior art methods that failed to
preserve a correlation;1 methods for diagnosing a new
subtype of myasthenia gravis — despite the methods'
practical application of man-made reagents;2 and dietary
alanine supplements and their use for increasing human muscle
tissue strength — despite the non-natural physiological
effects of such supplementation.3
But in the first months of 2018, the Federal Circuit has
exhibited a more generous approach to both steps one and two of the
patent eligibility analysis. Moreover, the court's
acknowledgement that patent eligibility, while ultimately a
question of law, may rest on factual issues improves the likelihood
of surviving early dismissal motions. To
