Strong Amicus Support for Sequenom’s Cert Petition

On March 21, 2016, Sequenom, Inc., represented by Kaye Scholer and Goldstein & Russell, filed its petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court to seek review of the Federal Circuit’s controversial decision in Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc. v. Sequenom, Inc., 788 F.3d 1371, reh’g denied, 809 F.3d 1282 (Fed. Cir. 2015).

Sequenom’s petition in Case No. 15-1182 is linked here. The Federal Circuit opinions are included in the appendix to the petition. Sequenom's reply brief to opposition on its petition for writ of certiorari is linked here.

The Federal Circuit’s decision invalidated Sequenom’s paradigm changing patent on noninvasive prenatal testing for fetal abnormalities using a maternal blood sample. The outcome of this case will significantly impact the speed of medical innovation, investment in cutting-edge diagnostics, and healthcare opportunities for pregnant women. The petition asks the Supreme Court to revisit its prior rulings to clarify that it did not intend to block patents for inventors who apply a new combination of known techniques to their own discoveries of new natural phenomena.

Many amicus briefs have been submitted to the Supreme Court in support of Sequenom’s petition for certiorari, reflecting a who’s who of biotech industry interests, patent owners’ organizations, and academics who have written extensively in this area of the law. Among the amici is Dr. Ananda Chakrabarty, whose genetic engineering invention was found patent eligible by the Supreme Court in the landmark Supreme Court case, Diamond v. Chakrabarty.

Each of the amicus briefs is accessible by clicking on the links below.

The amici include: U.S. industry groups, such as BIO, PhRMA, and the Coalition for 21st Century Medicine; biotech and pharmaceutical companies, such as Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis, and Eisai; genetic researchers, such as Dr. Ananda Chakrabarty and Jyant Technologies; two mothers, Linda Bruzzone and Erin Mading, whose children died from genetic conditions because of the unavailability of appropriate tests, and genetic testing companies, such as Population Diagnostics, Personalis, and Avant Diagnostics; leading biotech venture investors, such as Amarantus and ExoIncubator; the biotechnology industry associations of the E.U., U.K., Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Netherlands and Scotland; university research foundations at Wisconsin and Indiana; dozens of prominent patent law academics from law schools throughout the United States and the E.U.; patent owners’ associations, such as the Intellectual Property Organization; and patent lawyers’ groups from the United States and the E.U., including the New York, Boston, and San Diego Intellectual Property Law Associations, the U.K. Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, and the Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office.