April 2021

On April 15, 2021, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) implemented the COVID-19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program (“Pilot Program”) to fast-track ex parte appeals of products or processes subject to an applicable FDA approval for COVID-19 use.

Generally, appeals to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) are taken up for decision in

In In re: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (“Stanford”), No. 2020-1012 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 11, 2021), the Federal Circuit was presented another opportunity to analyze patent-eligible subject matter.  In affirming the § 101 rejection of the claims, the court held the mathematical calculations and statistical modeling improvements to determinations of haplotype