Does Australia Have a (US-Style) Two-Step Test for Patent-Eligibility?

In its Mayo/Myriad/Alice series of cases, the US Supreme Court has established a two-step test in order to determine whether a claimed invention defines patent-eligible subject matter or not.  In the first step, the claims are examined to determine whether they are ‘directed to’ a patent-ineligible concept, i.e. an abstract idea, law of nature or natural phenomenon.  If not, then the subject matter of the invention is eligible for patenting.  Otherwise, the analysis proceeds to step two, in which the claims are further analysed to determine whether or not they comprise some additional element, or combination of elements, that is ‘sufficient to ensure that the patent in practice amounts to significantly more than a patent upon the [ineligible concept] itself.’

In contentious cases the focus has generally fallen upon the second step of the analysis.  This is not surprising, considering that the reason these cases are contentious in the first place is because they are typically those in which the claims appear on their face to encompass ineligible subject matter, e.g. abstract ideas in the case of computer-implemented inventions such as in Alice, or natural phenomena such as the isolated DNA in Myriad or the presence of metabolites in blood samples in Mayo.  It might be said in such cases that ‘the vibe’ of the claim is that it looks like it might be ineligible, and that it is therefore necessary to proceed to step two in order to determine whether or not this initial impression is correct.

However, two recent decisions of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) confirm that the first step of the Mayo/Myriad/Alice framework is not merely a formality, but must be given proper consideration.  Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp. (Fed. Cir. 2016) [PDF, 605kB] concerned software-implemented methods and systems operating on a new and more efficient database format.  The court found at the first step of the Alice analysis that the claims were not directed to an abstract idea, on the basis that ‘[s]oftware can make non-abstract improvements to computer technology just as hardware improvements can’ and that it is ‘relevant to ask whether the claims are directed to an improvement to computer functionality versus being directed to an abstract idea’.  In McRO, Inc. v. Bandai Namco Games America Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2016) [PDF, 341kB] the court found that claims directed to generating automated lip-synchronization and associated facial expressions for 3D animated characters (e.g. in video games) were, similarly, not abstract, and patent-eligible at the first step of the test.

It should not come as any great surprise that the first step of the Alice framework actually has some teeth.  The test is supposed to apply to patent claims in all fields of technology, and clearly there are very many patents and applications that relate to wholly uncontentious subject matter for which patent-eligibility is barely a consideration.  In all such cases, the claims are effectively passing at the first step of the test.  The surprise, for many, is that the CAFC has finally started to recognise and apply this reality in relation to computer-implemented inventions.

This raises the question of whether there is an analogous process that takes place in Australia.  As a practical matter, I believe that there is, however it has not been explicitly set out by the courts, and it remains an unacknowledged aspect of examining patent claims for eligibility.  This is unfortunate, because the existence of an implicit step in the eligibility analysis is an obstacle to consistency and objectivity in the assessment of patent claims.

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Tags: Australia, Business processes, Computer programs, Genetic technology, Patentable subject matter, US

Recombinant DNA Technology and Extensions of Patent Term – ‘Swiss-Style’ Claims Continue to Confuse

A recent decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia has addressed the question of whether a patent directed to a second or subsequent medical use of a known pharmaceutical substance can be eligible for an extension of term, in the particular case that the substance is produced using recombinant DNA technology: AbbVie Biotechnology Ltd Commissioner of Patents [2016] AATA 682 (‘AATA decision’).  In deciding that so-called ‘Swiss-style claims’ can support an extension of term (assuming that all other requirements are satisfied), the AATA has reversed the finding of a Delegate of the Commissioner of Patents that such patents are not eligible for term extensions: AbbVie Biotechnology Ltd [2015] APO 45.  (Never fear if you are unfamiliar with the meaning of the terms ‘recombinant DNA technology’ and/or ‘Swiss-style claims’ – I explain further below.)

In Australia, the normal maximum term of a patent, i.e. 20 years from its original filing date, can be extended by up to five years in the case of certain pharmaceutical products, to compensate for the time that is typically required to complete trials and obtain the regulatory approvals necessary to actually commence marketing of a commercial drug.  For an original medical use of a substance, the availability and duration of any extension of term depends upon when a product including the substance is first listed on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG).  Generally, extensions are available only for patents covering the pharmaceutical substances themselves – patents on methods of making or using the substances are not extendible.  The one exception to this rule relates to the use of recombinant DNA technology in the production of a pharmaceutical substance.

AbbVie Biotechnology Ltd (‘AbbVie’) owns a number of Australian patents relating to a pharmaceutical substance known as adalimumab, which is produced by a process of recombinant DNA technology.  This drug is marketed under the name HUMIRA, and is supplied in the form of an injectable solution for the treatment of a number of diseases.  It was originally approved, and listed on the ARTG on 10 December 2003, for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.  It was subsequently demonstrated to be effective for the treatment of rheumatoid spondylitis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and these additional indications were added to the ARTG on 10 August 2006, 29 June 2007 and 23 July 2013 respectively.  AbbVie has patents covering these further medical uses of HUMIRA, each of which includes ‘Swiss-style’ claims.

AbbVie applied to the Australian Patent Office to extend the terms of its three further medical use patents.  The Delegate determined that they were not eligible for extensions of term, even if the extension applications had been filed in time (which he found they were not, because the applications should have been based upon the original 2003 listing on the ARTG, not the 2006, 2007 and 213 listings).  On appeal, the AATA reversed the first aspect of the Delegate’s findings, deciding (wrongly, in my view) that Swiss-style claims can form the basis for an extension of patent term.

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Tags: Australia, Extension of patent term, Genetic technology, Pharmaceuticals, Public policy

The Limitations of Patents in a Globalised Economy

Advances in information technology, transport and communications, along with the implementation of multinational trade agreements, have resulted in a great acceleration in cross-border movement of goods, services, technologies and capital over the past few decades.  Patents, on the other hand, continue to exist as rights having only national scope.  Even within the European Union, which has established a highly-integrated single internal market, and where the European Patent Organisation provides a mechanism for central examination and grant of European patents, ongoing maintenance and enforcement of granted rights remains a matter for the national patent offices and courts.  (This will change once the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court come into effect, however since the ‘Brexit’ vote the timetable for their implementation is uncertain.)

The potential difficulties with the limited national scope of patents are illustrated by a recent Australian Federal Court decision, Load and Move Pty Ltd v Container Rotation Systems Pty Ltd [2016] FCA 843. 

In broad terms, Load and Move is an Australian company that owns Australian patents, and which found itself in competition with other Australian companies (including Container Rotation Systems) to supply products to overseas customers (specifically, in Eritrea) that Load and Move believed may be covered by its patents.  Container Rotation Systems (CRS) promotes and sells its products via its website, www.containerrotationsystems.com, which can, of course, be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

The potentially infringing products, as it turns out, are manufactured at the same Chinese factory that makes the products for Load and Move.  Profits from the supply of the products no doubt accrue to the Australian competitors, however the products themselves are shipped directly from China to Eritrea, and thus never enter or leave Australian territory.

In these circumstances, it is understandable that Load and Move might feel, at least on some moral level, that its rights are being infringed, and that there ought to be something it could do to prevent competitors operating out of its own home market of Australia from ‘stealing’ business through the expedient of conducting all material (though not operational or financial) activities overseas.

However, ‘feeling’ wronged, and actually being legally wronged, may be two entirely different things.  In this case, the court found that it was not ‘objectively reasonable’ for Load and Move to believe that it had any right to relief in respect of the activities of CRS and other competitors in directing the overseas manufacture and supply, notwithstanding that they were operating out of Australia.

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Tags: Australia, Discovery, Infringement