AI is being used in the life sciences space to make important discoveries, ranging from new diagnostics to new therapeutic compounds and beyond. In one of the first cases from the Federal Circuit addressing patent eligibility for machine-learning (ML) inventions, the court ruled that applying “generic” ML techniques to a new data environment to automate a task previously performed by humans—in this case “event scheduling”—is an “abstract idea” and thus not patent-eligible, even if the claim includes superficial limitations related to training and improving an ML model. See Recentive Analytics, Inc. v. Fox Corp., No. 2023‑2437, slip op. at 18 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 18, 2025).
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