On October 2, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court declined the latest appeal to clear up patent eligibility, with Stanford University and CareDx seeking to reinstate a patent for organ transplant diagnostics which had been contested by two testing companies. (Law360)
This is yet another recent instance where questions around the grey area of patent eligibility elicited high-level judicial attention. Stanford University and CareDx brought the petition to the Supreme Court after a lower court had deemed the organ transplant diagnostics patent as ineligble.
The implications of this decision are multifaceted. For one, it continues the Supreme Court’s trend of declining to interfere in patent eligibility cases, which could further muddy the waters in determining patent worthiness as technologies—and especially medical technologies—rapidly evolve.
Secondly, the role of the two unnamed testing companies that challenged the patent claim from Stanford University and CareDx is noteworthy, since it underscores the ongoing competition in organ transplant diagnostic space. It will be interesting to track the ramifications of this verdict on diagnostics IP landscape as the decision might inform prospective legal actions from other players in the industry.