The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a
district court's decision finding a patent directed to a method
of sorting particles using flow cytometry technology ineligible
under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The Federal Circuit also vacated the
district court's conclusion that the patent owner was precluded
from asserting certain patents based on claim
preclusion. XY, LLC v. Trans Ova Genetics, LC, Case
No. 19-1789 (Fed. Cir. July 31, 2020) (Stoll, J.).
XY, Beckman Coulter and Inguran (collectively, XY) sued Trans
Ova in 2016 for infringement of seven patents relating to
technology for sex selection of non-human mammals. Trans Ova filed
a motion for judgment on the pleadings, arguing that the asserted
claims of one of the patents are ineligible under 35 U.S.C. §
101. Applying the Supreme Court's two-step Alice
framework for determining patent eligibility, the district court
determined that the claims are ineligible under § 101. At
Alice step one, the district court
