By Leslie Kushner and Eric Yecies ( March 28, 2018, 2:23 PM EDT) -- Following a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the scope of patent eligibility, culminating in Alice Corp Pty Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int'l (2014), the number of patents invalidated under 35 U.S.C. § 101 has skyrocketed. While §101 patent invalidity challenges can be brought at several points during a litigation, recent Federal Circuit decisions continue to raise the question as to whether it is appropriate to challenge patent eligibility under § 101 early in the litigation. Here, we address strategic advantages of when to challenge § 101 patent eligibility, and how to defend against such challenges, with particular focus on patent eligibility challenges in litigation of pharmaceutical and biotechnological patents....