A Federal Circuit panel reversed a district court's grant of motion for judgment on pleadings that the asserted claims were patent ineligible because the appellee's proposed claim constructions failed to render the claims invalid. Natural Alternatives Int'l v. Creative Compounds, LLC, No. 2018-1295 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 15, 2019). Natural Alternatives is the owner of patents relating to dietary supplements containing Beta-alanine, an amino acid, that helps to increase the anaerobic working capacity of muscle. Natural Alternatives sued Creative Compounds and the S.D. Cal. court granted Creative's motion for judgment on pleadings under Rule 12(c) holding that the asserted claims lacked inventive concept rendering them patent ineligible. Using the proposed claim constructions of Natural Alternatives, the district court held the asserted claim 1 is directed to the natural law because "ingesting certain levels of beta-alanine, a natural substance, will increase the carnosine concentration in human tissue and, thereby, increase the anaerobic working capacity in a human." Claim 1 recited, in part, "effective to increase beta-alanylhistidine dipeptide synthesis in the tissue...wherein the amino acid is provided through a dietary supplement." In reversing the district court, the Federal Circuit panel consisting of Judges Moore, Reyna and Wallach reasoned that the asserted claims are "treatment claims" and administering certain quantities of beta-alanine results in specific physiological benefits for athletes engaged in intensive exercise and the claims embodies this discovery requiring administration of certain dosage. Judge Reyna concurred with the panel's decision to reverse the district court's grant of motion for judgment but dissented from the majority's Section 101 analysis.
Full text of the opinion is available here.
Full text of the opinion is available here.
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