Patents Directed to Testing Enzymes to Assess Cardiovascular Disease Invalid Under 35 U.S.C. § 101

The court granted defendant's motion to dismiss because the asserted claims of plaintiff’s patents for testing enzymes to assess cardiovascular disease encompassed unpatentable subject matter and found that the claims lacked an inventive concept. "Plaintiff argues that the prosecution history shows that the patents-in-suit claim a nonroutine way of measuring and using [an enzyme] to achieve a new and useful result. According to plaintiff, it invented a specific way to 'see' [the enzyme]. . . . [E]ven though plaintiff may have been the first to 'see' [the enzyme] by looking at the amount of [the enzyme] molecules and/or the enzymatic activity level, these values are naturally occurring and their discovery does not render the patents eligible under § 101."

Cleveland Clinic Foundation et al v. True Health Diagnostics LLC, 1-15-cv-02331 (OHND February 23, 2016, Order) (Gaughan, J.)