When Applying Alice, Evaluate The Invention As A Whole

Addressing for the first time eligibility issues under 35 USC § 101 for a method of preserving organ cells, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s ruling that the claims were directed to a patent-ineligible law of nature. Rapid Litigation Management Ltd. v. Cellzdirect, Inc., Case No. 15-1570 (Fed. Cir., July 5, 2016) (Prost, J).

The patent at issue was directed to an improved process of preserving hepatocytes, a type of liver cell. Hepatocyte preparations are useful in a variety of research, diagnostic and therapeutic contexts. The prior art preservation process was limited to a single freeze/thaw cycle, as conventional wisdom held that a single cycle was all that the cells could withstand. As a result, it was difficult to produce multi-donor pools of cells using the prior art process. The inventors discovered that a portion of the liver cells in a preparation could withstand an additional freeze-thaw cycle, and they used