Supreme Court has hard time finding an easy test for patents on medical processes

[alp227]

Source: WaPo

Prometheus Laboratories holds patents for how to determine the proper dosage of drugs that treat gastrointestinal and other autoimmune diseases. The problem for the company, defending itself Wednesday at the Supreme Court against a patent challenge from the Mayo Clinic, was that its procedures don’t sound like much of a discovery.

You administer the drug. You take a blood sample. If the level of the drug or its components is too low, you increase the dosage. If too high, you decrease.

Justice Elena Kagan summed up the argument for those who wonder whether Prometheus had actually invented anything.

“This is not a treatment protocol, it’s not a treatment regimen,” Kagan said. “All you have done is pointed out a set of facts that exist in the world . . . and are claiming protection for something that anybody can try to make use of in any way, and you are saying, ‘You have to pay us.’ ”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-has-hard-time-finding-an-easy-test-for-patents-on-medical-processes/2011/12/07/gIQAneUldO_story.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. LOL

[groundloop]

2. The patent examiner who let that slide through needs to find a new line of work

I've been involved with a few patents as part of my job, and it's telling to see how broad some patents are which get approved.

I'm surprised that a patent challenge made it all the way to the Supreme Court. That might be a good thing though, maybe they'll issue a ruling which will force the US Patent Office to tighten up on what they give patent protection to.

It's also interesting to see which justices are actually putting some thought into cases that they hear. I notice that Justice Thomas' name wasn't mentioned in this article.