The lone patent case the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear this term centers on how pharmaceutical companies claim antibodies in patents and the way that impacts competing cholesterol medications, meaning a decision will clearly have implications for attorneys in the life sciences area. But lawyers who focus on software and other sectors should be paying attention as well. "It shows you how infrequently practitioners get guidance on this issue," said Intellectual Property Litigation partner Natasha Daughtrey. There can be multiple ways to practice a claim, which is how patent owners can sue for infringement of the same claims against multiple parties and products even if the allegedly infringing products aren't exactly the same, Daughtrey said. "Many claims, regardless of technology, have more than one potential embodiment, more than one example of how to practice the claim," Daughtrey said to Law360.