Before LOURIE, MOORE, and REYNA, Circuit Judges.
Illumina, Inc. and Sequenom, Inc. ("Illumina") filed
suit against Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc., Roche Sequencing Solutions,
Inc., and Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. ("Roche")
alleging infringement of U.S. Patents 9,580,751 and 9,738,931.
Roche moved for summary judgment that the asserted claims were
invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The district court granted
Roche's motion holding that the claims of the '751 and
'931 patents were directed to ineligible subject matter.
Illumina appealed. The Federal Circuit ("the Court")
reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment and
remanded for further proceedings.
The Court pointed out that "although it was known that
cell-free fetal DNA existed in the mother's blood-stream, there
was no known way to distinguish and separate the tiny amount of
fetal DNA from the vast amount of maternal DNA." The majority
of the circulatory extracellular fetal DNA has a relatively small
size
