Something New: PTAB Tackles Section 101 Patent Eligibility

It's not often that we write about pharmaceutical patents on this blog, and even less often that we blog here about PTAB decisions. The former is a function of the Federal Circuit's decision in Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. West-Ward Pharmaceuticals Int'l Ltd., 887 F. 3d 1122 (Fed. Cir. 2018) (holding that virtually all method of treatment patents automatically comply with Section 101); the latter is a function of the inability to challenge patents for noncompliance with Section 101 in an inter partes review, which is limited to certain prior-art challenges.

As more patents become eligible for post-grant review — which permits a broader array of challenges, including for lack of compliance with Section 101 — we are likely to see more PTAB decisions addressing Section 101. In this post, we write about one such example.