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
In a tale that boldly goes where few celebrity inventors have gone before, William Shatner—yes, that William Shatner—alongside two co-inventors, filed a patent application for a “Smartphone Organization System and...more
It is well known that in the U.S., abstract ideas, laws of nature, natural phenomena, and products of nature are all excluded from patenting under 35 U.S.C. § 101. This article briefly outlines various U.S. approaches to...more
As with other rapidly-evolving technologies, the blockchain space is experiencing a frenzy of patent activity. The data shows that there are 3-4 times as many published applications as there are issued patents for these...more
The evolution of graphical user interfaces parallels the evolution of computing technology itself. As computers grow more powerful and sophisticated, so does their ability to display cutting-edge representations of...more
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Alice v. CLS Bank, patent stakeholders have faced many difficulties navigating the world of patent-eligibility. Through many Federal Circuit decisions and Guidance given by the U.S....more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), on occasion, publishes certain Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decisions as precedential or informative. An informative decision provides PTAB norms on recurring issues,...more
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) recently designated three more decisions as informative, bringing the total number of informative decisions to 13 for 2019. Two decisions—one final and one on institution—address...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) recently released October 2019 Patent Eligibility Guidance Update (“October 2019 Update”), which supplements the Guidance issued on January 7, 2019 (“2019 Guidance”)....more
On October 17, 2019, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a 22-page updated guidance document on subject matter eligibility under 35 USC §101. Subject matter eligibility is becoming increasingly important in the...more
In 2014, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, et al., 573 U.S. 208, which significantly altered the patentability of software, business methods,...more
A divided panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court, finding that a claimed method for monitoring and analyzing a computer network was directed to an improvement in computer...more
On January 7, 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance, a major update to the examination guidelines for evaluating whether a patent claim...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
USPTO’s New Guidance on Subject Matter Eligibility - Few areas of patent law are as unsettled as subject matter eligibility. To improve clarity, consistency, and predictability, the USPTO recently published new guidance on...more
Much of the modern economy is driven by software development. Companies are creating and refining new apps that run on mobile devices, and using machine learning to provide users with personalized user interfaces and...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
The USPTO has issued updated guidance for examiners and administrative patent judges (APJs) relating to subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. 101 and examining computer-implemented functional claim limitations under 35...more
For the last several years, a major part of prosecuting software-related patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) has been dealing with the USPTO’s inconsistent interpretation of patent subject-matter...more
As we’ve covered in other summaries, the Federal Circuit continues to define the line between computer-implemented claims that are patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for being directed to an abstract idea with no...more
Over the past few years, a dramatic number of blockchain-related patent applications have been filed at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). Blockchain innovations may be categorized as software-use cases and thus may...more
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Mayo and Alice decisions, uncertainty has surrounded what inventions are patent eligible in the United States. In Mayo and Alice, the Supreme Court developed a two-step test to determine...more
This second part of a two-part article discusses four decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit finding subject matter eligibility under step 2 of Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, et...more
Post-Alice, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) is aggressively rejecting software claims under the Alice two-part test, the parameters of which many examiners are still trying to understand. Not...more
Many people have misperceptions about what intellectual property (IP) protects, and some common IP misconceptions are debunked below. (1) Ideas Cannot Be Patented. Only inventions can be patented. The legal...more
In the past year, several Federal Circuit decisions defined situations in which software inventions could be eligible for patenting in the United States. However, two recent Federal Circuit decisions show that the path for...more