A series of recent Federal Circuit opinions—as well as the Supreme Court’s decision to grant certiorari in a case concerning a controversial medical treatment patent—highlight the continuing ferment over the doctrine of patent eligibility. This doctrine defines the dividing line between inventions that may receive the benefit of a limited patent monopoly and abstract ideas that remain in the public domain.
Under section 101 of the Patent Act, any process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter—four expansive categories—is eligible for a patent. Balancing the broad reach of section 101, federal common law principles deny patent protection to laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas. While these general principles are easy to state, they can be hard to apply, particularly to business method and biotechnology patents.
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