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Page Number: 8

4 

BILSKI v. KAPPOS 

Opinion of the Court 

court’s approach.  Id., at 966–976. 

Three  judges  wrote  dissenting  opinions.  Judge  Mayer 
argued  that  petitioners’  application  was  “not  eligible  for 
patent  protection  because  it  is  directed  to  a  method  of
conducting business.”  Id., at 998.  He urged the adoption
of  a  “technological  standard  for  patentability.”    Id.,  at 
1010.  Judge  Rader  would  have  found  petitioners’  claims 
were  an  unpatentable  abstract  idea.    Id.,  at  1011.  Only
Judge Newman disagreed with the court’s conclusion that
petitioners’  application  was  outside  of  the  reach  of  §101. 
She  did  not  say  that  the  application  should  have  been 
granted  but  only  that  the  issue  should  be  remanded  for 
further  proceedings  to  determine  whether  the  application 
qualified as patentable under other provisions.  Id., at 997. 

This Court granted certiorari.  556 U. S. ___ (2009). 

II 
A 
Section  101  defines  the  subject  matter  that  may  be 

patented under the Patent Act: 

“Whoever  invents  or  discovers  any  new  and  useful 
process,  machine,  manufacture,  or  composition  of
matter,  or  any  new  and  useful  improvement  thereof, 
may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions 
and requirements of this title.” 

Section  101  thus  specifies  four  independent  categories  of 
inventions  or  discoveries  that  are  eligible  for  protection: 
processes,  machines,  manufactures,  and  compositions  of 
matter.  “In choosing such expansive terms . . . modified by
the  comprehensive  ‘any,’  Congress  plainly  contemplated 
that  the  patent  laws  would  be  given  wide  scope.”    Dia-
mond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U. S. 303, 308 (1980).  Congress
took  this  permissive  approach  to  patent  eligibility  to  en-
sure  that  “ ‘ingenuity  should  receive  a  liberal  encourage-
ment.’ ”    Id.,  at  308–309  (quoting  5  Writings  of  Thomas