Podcast: Patentable Subject Matter in 2019
Drafting Software Patents In A Post-Alice World
Polsinelli Podcasts - Hear How the SCOTUS Ruling May Impact Patent-Eligible Subject Matter for Software
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a memorandum on August 4, 2025, to provide reminders to Examiners in software-related arts, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, regarding...more
The USPTO has issued an internal memorandum that may make it easier to patent software, in particular AI-related software inventions. In recent years, the USPTO has found certain software inventions to be patent-ineligible...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance (PEG) in January 2019, then released an update (PEG Update) in October 2019 to clarify certain issues in the PEG. The PEG and...more
The Appointments Clause: Ensuring That PTAB Decisions Are Subject to Constitutional Checks and Balances In Arthrex, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., Appeal No. 18-2251, the Federal Circuit ruled that, under the then-existing...more
Earlier this year, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or “the Office”) published the 2019 Revised Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance (2019 PEG), which set forth newly revised procedures to be used by USPTO...more
Q: In light of the Federal Circuit’s ruling in Ancora v. HTC, do you have any tips for patent draftspersons? Steven G. Saunders: The Ancora decision is the latest ruling in a string of post-Alice cases suggesting that...more
In January of 2019, the Patent Office, under Director Iancu, issued new guidance to all USPTO personnel evaluating patent subject matter eligibility under the requirements of 35 USC Section 101. The guidance sought to add...more
Patent stakeholders have recognized the difficulties in consistently predicting what subject matter is patent-eligible, given the inconsistent and varying manner in which the Alice/Mayo test has been applied over the years....more
On January 7, 2019, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued new guidance on Patent Eligibility, seeking to improve the overall clarity, consistency, and predictability of patent eligibility analysis performed by...more
Recent USPTO Guidance Offers Insight for Software Patent Eligibility - By now most of you have probably heard that "software patents" and "software patent applications" have had a rough time for the past 4 ½ years. Some of...more
New guidance may lead to fewer patent applications rejected on eligibility grounds - Patentable subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C § 101 has been the subject of much attention since the Supreme Court articulated the...more
On January 4, 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) released a significant, much-awaited revision to its patentable subject matter eligibility guidance. The “2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter...more
The Situation The legal uncertainty surrounding patent subject matter eligibility under Section 101 of the United States Code ("35 U.S.C. § 101") has been the subject of much attention, as it has become difficult for...more
On January 4th, the USPTO announced revised guidance for subject matter eligibility (Section 101 Revised Guidance) and stated it would take effect when published on Monday, January 7, 2019....more
On Friday, January 4, 2019, the USPTO announced revised guidance for determining subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101, as well as new guidance for the application of Section 112 to computer-implemented inventions,...more
If the focus on fact finding in Aatrix, Berkheimer, and Exergen from earlier this year helped provide additional clarity on the analysis of “something more,” the SAP America decision, at least to my mind, failed to clarify,...more
Patent attorneys and patent agents ("patent practitioners") deal with the best and brightest engineers and scientists on a daily basis. As inventors, these engineers and scientists understand the technology associated with...more
Berkheimer v. HP Inc., Appeal No. 2017-1437 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 8, 2018) - In Berkheimer v. HP Inc., the Federal Circuit reviewed the District Court’s summary judgment finding that certain claims of a patent were invalid as...more
David Kappos, the former director of the United States Patent & Trademark Office (2009-2013), thinks that “[i]t’s time to abolish §101.” Kappos made these comments at the Federal Circuit Judicial Conference in Washington, DC,...more
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Alice decision on patent subject matter eligibility, patent stakeholders have anticipated a reaction from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in regard to patent...more