The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently provided updated guidance regarding the patent eligibility of subject matter related to natural products. The updated guidance may be of interest to companies seeking patent claims to diagnostic methods, biomarker detection, and other life science-based technologies.

The USPTO’s May 2016 pronouncement supplements the 2014 Interim Guidance on Subject Matter Eligibility (“the Guidelines”) and the July 2015 Update on Subject Matter Eligibility, which provided guidance and examples for determining patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 (“Section 101”). The USPTO issued these Guidelines in light of various decisions from the Supreme Court, such as Mayo4 and Myriad, and to provide a uniform framework for the analysis of subject matter eligibility when a claim is deemed to involve a natural law or product or other judicial exception to patent eligibility.