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Page Number: 10.0

6 

BILSKI v. KAPPOS 

Opinion of the Court 

B 
1 
Under the Court of Appeals’ formulation, an invention is
a “process” only if: “(1) it is tied to a particular machine or 
apparatus,  or  (2)  it  transforms  a  particular  article  into  a 
different  state  or  thing.”    545  F. 3d,  at  954.    This  Court 
has “more than once cautioned that courts ‘should not read 
into the patent laws limitations and conditions which the 
legislature  has  not  expressed.’ ”  Diamond  v.  Diehr,  450 
U. S. 175, 182 (1981) (quoting Chakrabarty, supra, at 308; 
some internal quotation marks omitted).  In patent law, as
in  all  statutory  construction,  “[u]nless  otherwise  defined, 
‘words  will  be  interpreted  as  taking  their  ordinary,  con-
temporary,  common  meaning.’ ”  Diehr,  supra,  at  182 
(quoting Perrin v.  United States, 444 U. S. 37, 42 (1979)). 
The Court has read the §101 term “manufacture” in accor-
dance with dictionary definitions, see Chakrabarty, supra, 
at 308 (citing American Fruit Growers, Inc. v. Brogdex Co., 
283 U. S. 1, 11 (1931)), and approved a construction of the 
term  “composition  of  matter”  consistent  with  common 
usage, see Chakrabarty, supra, at 308 (citing Shell Devel-
opment Co. v. Watson, 149 F. Supp. 279, 280 (DC 1957)). 

Any suggestion in this Court’s case law that the Patent 
Act’s terms deviate from their ordinary meaning has only 
been an explanation for the exceptions for laws of nature,
physical  phenomena,  and  abstract  ideas.    See  Parker  v. 
Flook, 437 U. S. 584, 588–589 (1978).  This Court has not 
indicated  that  the  existence  of  these  well-established 
exceptions  gives  the  Judiciary  carte  blanche  to  impose
other  limitations  that  are  inconsistent  with  the  text  and 
the  statute’s  purpose  and  design.    Concerns  about  at-
tempts to call any form of human activity a “process” can 
be met by making sure the claim meets the requirements
of §101.

Adopting the machine-or-transformation test as the sole