The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently decided an appeal of a patent lawsuit involving Cardionet LLC, of Conshohocken, Pa., invalidating the Cardionet patent for lack of subject matter eligibility. While the patent offers a significant improvement in the functionality of any computer that uses the Cardionet algorithm, the Federal Circuit declared that the invention does nothing more than use the computer as a tool to express an abstract idea.

A Chinese patent covering methods and compositions for the use of CRISPR-Cas9 in eukaryotes has been granted to Dublin-based Ers Genomics Ltd., making what Michael Arciero, vice president of intellectual property and commercial development at the company, called “a strong but not surprising statement by China,” which has made the biotechnology industry one of its top national priorities.

Patent subject matter eligibility has emerged as arguably the most controversial patent policy theme of the past two decades, one which has been most keenly felt in the world of in vitro diagnostics (IVDs). A new study pending publication suggests that venture capital (VC) investment in IVDs would have been $9.3 billion higher in the four years following the Supreme Court’s decision in Mayo v. Prometheus, a finding which the author said leads inevitably to the conclusion that the subject matter eligibility crisis “should receive Congress’ immediate attention.”