The life sciences industry isn't going to give up its biotech patents without a fight.

Powerful trade associations are warning that a decision last month from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that invalidated the patent on a prenatal blood test is threatening investment in biotechnology. Influential academics are urging the court to take Ariosa Diagnostics v. Sequenom en banc and set meaningful boundaries on the Supreme Court's recent patent eligibility jurisprudence.

“There is serious risk that failure to engage this issue at this juncture could set the patent system on a dire course,” say UC-Berkeley Law professor Peter Menell and UC-Hastings' Jeffrey Lefstin in an amicus curiae brief filed Thursday.