preting section 101 of title 35, United States Code, 
requires significant modification and clarification. 
(2) For many years after the original enact-
ment of section 101 of title 35, United States Code, 
the Supreme Court of the United States and other 
courts created judicial exceptions to the wording of 
that section, thereby rendering an increasing number 
of inventions ineligible for patent protection. 
(3) Efforts by judges of district courts and 
courts of appeals of the United States to apply the 
exceptions described in paragraph (2) to specific cir-
cumstances have led to extensive confusion and a 
lack of consistency— 
(A) throughout the judicial branch of the 
Federal Government and Federal agencies; and 
(B) among patent practitioners. 
(4) Many judges of the United States Court of 
Appeals for the Federal Circuit and of various dis-
trict courts of the United States have explicitly ex-
pressed the need for more guidance with respect to 
the meaning of section 101 of title 35, United States 
Code, and many patent owners, and persons that en-
gage with patent owners, complain that the interpre-
tation of that section is extremely confusing and dif-
ficult to discern and apply with any confidence. 
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(5) Under this Act, and the amendments made 
by this Act, the state of the law shall be as follows: 
(A) All judicial exceptions to patent eligi-
bility are eliminated. 
(B) Any invention or discovery that can be 
claimed as a useful process, machine, manufac-
ture, or composition of matter, or any useful 
improvement thereof, is eligible for patent pro-
tection, except as explicitly provided in section 
101 of title 35, United States Code, as amend-
ed by this Act, as described in subparagraphs 
(D) and (E) of this paragraph. 
(C) Sections 102, 103, and 112 of title 35, 
United States Code, will continue to prescribe 
the requirements for obtaining a patent, but no 
such requirement will be used in determining 
patent eligibility. 
(D) The following inventions shall not be 
eligible for patent protection: 
(i) A mathematical formula that is 
not part of an invention that is in a cat-
egory described in subparagraph (B). 
(ii) A mental process performed solely 
in the mind of a human being. 
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(iii) An unmodified human gene, as 
that gene exists in the human body. 
(iv) An unmodified human gene that 
is isolated from the human body, but oth-
erwise the same as that gene exists in the 
human body. 
(v) An unmodified natural material, 
as that material exists in nature. 
(vi) A process that is substantially 
economic, financial, business, social, cul-
tural, or artistic. 
(E) Under the exception described in sub-
paragraph (D)(vi)— 
(i) process claims drawn solely to the 
steps undertaken by human beings in 
methods of doing business, performing 
dance moves, offering marriage proposals, 
and the like shall not be eligible for patent 
coverage, and adding a non-essential ref-
erence to a computer by merely stating, for 
example, ‘‘do it on a computer’’ shall not 
establish such eligibility; and 
(ii) any process that cannot be prac-
tically performed without the use of a ma-
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chine (including a computer) or manufac-
ture shall be eligible for patent coverage. 
SEC. 3. PATENT ELIGIBILITY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 10 of title 35, United 
States Code, is amended— 
(1) in section 100— 
(A) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘includes 
a new use of a known process’’ and inserting 
‘‘includes a use, application, or method of man-
ufacture of a known or naturally-occurring 
process’’; and 
(B) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(k) The term ‘useful’ means, with respect to an in-
vention or discovery, that the invention or discovery has 
a specific and practical utility from the perspective of a 
person of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention 
or discovery pertains.’’; and 
(2) by amending section 101 to read as follows: 
‘‘§ 101. Patent eligibility 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Whoever invents or discovers 
any useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition 
of matter, or any useful improvement thereof, may obtain 
a patent therefor, subject only to the exclusions in sub-
section (b) and to the further conditions and requirements 
of this title. 
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‘‘(b) ELIGIBILITY EXCLUSIONS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), a 
person may not obtain a patent for any of the fol-
lowing, if claimed as such: 
‘‘(A) A mathematical formula that is not 
part of a claimed invention in a category de-
scribed in subsection (a). 
‘‘(B) A process that is substantially eco-
nomic, financial, business, social, cultural, or 
artistic, even though at least 1 step in the proc-
ess refers to a machine or manufacture. 
‘‘(C) A process that— 
‘‘(i) is a mental process performed 
solely in the human mind; or 
‘‘(ii) occurs in nature wholly inde-
pendent of, and prior to, any human activ-
ity. 
‘‘(D) An unmodified human gene, as that 
gene exists in the human body. 
‘‘(E) An unmodified natural material, as 
that material exists in nature. 
‘‘(2) CONDITIONS.—For the purposes of— 
‘‘(A) subparagraphs (A) and (B) of para-
graph (1), the claimed invention shall not be ex-
cluded from eligibility for a patent if the inven-
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tion cannot practically be performed without 
the use of a machine or manufacture; 
‘‘(B) paragraph (1)(D), a human gene 
shall not be considered to be unmodified if that 
human gene is— 
‘‘(i) purified, enriched, or otherwise 
altered by human activity; or 
‘‘(ii) otherwise employed in a useful 
invention or discovery; and 
‘‘(C) paragraph (1)(E), a natural material 
shall not be considered to be unmodified if that 
natural material is— 
‘‘(i) isolated, purified, enriched, or 
otherwise altered by human activity; or 
‘‘(ii) otherwise employed in a useful 
invention or discovery. 
‘‘(c) ELIGIBILITY.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—In determining whether, 
under this section, a claimed invention is eligible for 
a patent, eligibility shall be determined— 
‘‘(A) by considering the claimed invention 
as a whole and without discounting or dis-
regarding any claim element; and 
‘‘(B) without regard to— 
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‘‘(i) the manner in which the claimed 
invention was made; 
‘‘(ii) whether a claim element is 
known, conventional, routine, or naturally 
occurring; 
‘‘(iii) the state of the applicable art, 
as of the date on which the claimed inven-
tion is invented; or 
‘‘(iv) any other consideration in sec-
tion 102, 103, or 112. 
‘‘(2) INFRINGEMENT ACTION.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In an action brought 
for infringement under this title, the court, at 
any time, may determine whether an invention 
or discovery that is a subject of the action is el-
igible for a patent under this section, including 
on motion of a party when there are no genuine 
issues of material fact. 
‘‘(B) LIMITED DISCOVERY.—With respect 
to a determination described in subparagraph 
(A), the court may consider limited discovery 
relevant only to the eligibility described in that 
subparagraph before ruling on a motion de-
scribed in that subparagraph.’’. 
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(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 
The table of sections for chapter 10 of title 35, United 
States Code, is amended by striking the item relating to 
section 101 and inserting the following: 
‘‘101. Patent eligibility.’’. 
SEC. 4. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. 
(a) OBVIOUSNESS-TYPE
DOUBLE
PATENTING.— 
Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, 
may be construed to affect or alter the judicially-created 
doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting. 
(b) INSIGNIFICANT EXTRA-SOLUTION ACTIVITY.— 
With respect to the exclusions to patent eligibility de-
scribed in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of section 101(b)(1) 
of title 35, United States Code, as added by section 3 of 
this Act, the inclusion of pre- or post-solution activity by 
a computer (or other machine or manufacture) in claim 
language shall not be sufficient to confer patent eligibility 
on the claim if that computer (or other machine or manu-
facture) is not necessary to practically perform the inven-
tion. 
Æ 
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