Supreme Court Unanimously Holds Prometheus Method Claim Unpatentable Subject Matter by Merely Reciting Law of Nature

In a unanimous decision, (BREYER, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court) the Supreme Court on March 20, 2012, reversed the Federal Circuit and held that method claim for treating autoimmune diseases are not eligible for patent protection because it merely recites a law of nature.  Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboraties, Inc., U.S., No. 10-1150, 3/20/2012.  If a law of nature is not patentable, then neither is a process reciting a law of nature, unless that process has additional features that provide practical assurance that the process is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the law of nature itself. A patent, for example, could not simply recite a law of nature and then add the instruction “apply the law.”
Cite as: 566 U. S. ____ (2012)
Opinion of the Court