Instead, the Federal Circuit utilized a one-step test derived from a different Supreme Court eligibility decision known as Myriad. This one-step test focused solely on whether the patented invention was “markedly different” from a natural phenomenon, and it ultimately concluded that the milk vitamin patent did not meet this criterion.
Dartmouth’s petition highlighted the critical importance of applying the Alice test uniformly across different domains, emphasizing that the Federal Circuit’s approach threatened to undermine the biotechnology sector’s long-standing recognition that novel uses and applications of a patent-ineligible concept can still be deemed patentable.
Milk Vitamin Patent Eligibility Case : The Dispute Unveiled
The roots of this complex legal battle stretch back to September 2018, when Dartmouth and ChromaDex initiated a legal confrontation against Elysium Health in a Delaware federal court. The lawsuit revolved around Dartmouth’s ‘807 patent and a related vitamin B3 patent, U.S. Patent No. 8,383,086.
