Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc.
Issues
Whether the possible “transformations” of body chemistry involved in giving a patient prescription drugs and testing the patient's blood for a naturally occurring correlation are enough to validate a patent for the correlation.
In this case, the Supreme Court will evaluate the validity of two patents held by Respondent Prometheus Laboratories. Prometheus had marketed a multistep medical test based on these patents, which describe the proper dosage range of powerful immunosuppressive drugs. However, after Petitioner Mayo Medical Laboratories announced its intention to market a competing medical test in 2004, Prometheus sued for patent infringement. Mayo now argues that the patents are invalid because they seek to monopolize a natural phenomenon, preempting all other uses of a naturally occurring correlation between metabolites and patient health. Prometheus, on the other hand, argues that the patents are valid because they involve concrete applications and cover patentable correlations, not just natural phenomena. The decision in this case may affect the cost and quality of patient health care, as well as the incentives for research and development in the medical industry.
Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties
Whether 35 U.S.C. § 101 is satisfied by a patent claim that covers observed correlations between blood test results and patient health, so that the claim effectively preempts all uses of the naturally occurring correlations, simply because well-known methods used to administer prescription drugs and test blood may involve “transformations” of body chemistry.
Petitioner Mayo Collaborative Services (“Mayo”) is a for-profit medical laboratory operating within the Mayo Clinic, a charitable institution providing medical education, research, and clinical care. See Brief for Petitioner, Mayo Collaborative Services at 8. The Mayo laboratory is recognized in particular for its treatment of autoimmune diseases, including gastrointestinal conditions like
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Additional Resources
TechDirt.com: Supreme Court Will Review the Patentability of Medical Diagnostic Tests (June 21, 2011)
PatentBaristas.com: Prometheus II: Hold the Mayo (June 20, 2011)
PatentDocs.org: Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. v. Mayo Collaborative Services (Dec. 20, 2010)