SUPREME COURT CASES
Sequenom Seeks Supreme Court Review of Diagnostic Claims Held
Invalid Under § 101
On Monday, March 21, 2016, Sequenom, Inc. filed a petition for
writ of certiorari in Sequenom, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics,
Inc., et al., No. 141139 (Fed. Cir. June 12, 2015). The
question posed to the Supreme Court centers around the
patentability of diagnostic claims applied to newlydiscovered
natural phenomena.
The claimed work dates back to 1996, when two doctors discovered
paternal cellfree fetal DNA (cffDNA) in maternal blood serum and
plasma. With that discovery, the doctors developed a method of
testing fetal DNA to determine, among other things, the risk of
certain birth defects in a manner far less invasive than
conventional techniques, which required DNA samples to be taken
directly from the fetus or placenta. The doctors obtained U.S.
Patent No. 6,258,540 covering the methods.
