Source: https://intellectualip.com/author/nrcapes/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 20:52:56+00:00

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CLS Bank Int’l v. Alice Corp.PTY, (2013 WL 1020941 (C.A.Fed.)(Dist.Col))), a per curiam opinion of the Federal Circuit, conflates method, system, and media claims in rejecting all of them under 35 USC § 101. The Court’s reasoning depends upon the proscription against “abstract ideas” in Supreme Court judicial precedent interpreting the statute. This article suggests that this is an incorrect approach.
1. A wrench for removing a bolt from a workpiece.
“Wrench,” “bolt,” and “workpiece” are all abstract at some level: we do not include the actual physical objects in the claim. Of course we don’t because a) the PTO would have to store the actual physical objects and b) any competitor would have to get access to the actual physical objects to design around the claim.
2. A tool for removing a fastener from an object.
But “tool” and “fastener” may be too broad, considering the known prior art. Nevertheless, this “abstract” claim will never be rejected under 35 USC § 101. Why? Because it does not claim a computer process. Correctly, the Examiner will look at the other provisions of patentability: 35 USC §§ 112, 102, and 103.
c) add the first number and second number, storing the result in a third portion of the memory.
(6) a general concept (principle, theory, plan or scheme) is not involved in executing the steps of the method.
How can a patent draftsman avoid claiming an abstract idea when the USPTO’s guidance is so highly abstract? He or she has a very difficult task, indeed.
d) output the results through the input/output device.
Note that in the above claim: the claim is drawn to physical objects (processor, memory, input/output device); the machine implements the steps of the method; the machine imposes meaningful limits on the execution of the claimed method steps; performance of the claimed method results in the transformation of a particular article (the computer’s memory); performance of the claimed method does not involve an application of a law of nature; and a general concept is not involved in executing the steps of the method.
This claim very likely would not be patentable under 35 USC § 102, but is there any reason to treat it differently under 35 USC § 101 than the claim to a wrench above?
Well, of course the system and method claims require “performance of the same basic process”: the invention! As we have seen, any claim to an invention involves the use of words, and therefore involves “abstraction.” We have also seen that the USPTO “Interim Guidance for Determining Subject Matter Eligibility for Process Claims in view of Bilski v. Kappos” memorandum uses highly abstract words to guide the Examiner (and claim draftsperson) in deciding what is an abstract claim. To provide maximum claim coverage for the inventor, the patent draftsperson drafts system claims as well as method claims. Now, after CLS Bank, because the system claims are in the same patent application as the method claims, the ineligible subject matter in the method claims has infected the system claims with ineligibility.
So, continuing with our example, transforming the above method claim into a system claim would not result in patentability.
The consequences of Bilski and other recent cases on 35 USC § 101 have now reached a nadir. The snake has swallowed its own tail. In attempting to establish a Procrustean bed on which to make all computer software claims fit, the Federal Circuit is cutting the legs off software patents. The per curia opinion’s statement in CLS Bank that the approach “might also inform patent-eligibility in other contexts” (i.e. medical treatments, gene patents, etc.) can only make one shudder.
On Monday, April 15, 2013, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Association of Molecular Pathology vs. Myriad Genetics. As has been amply discussed, this case involves the patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. 101 of certain isolated DNA molecules encoding a mutation that is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in women.
“To be sure, ‘human genes’ as they exist in the body are not ‘patent eligible’ under 35 USC 101; they also are not patentable under other provisions of patent law. For instance, human genes are not ‘new’ and therefore a claim to a human gene would be anticipated by naturally occurring human genes in contravention of 35 U.S.C. 102. ‘Patentability,’ however, is not at issue in this case. ‘Patentability’ refers to compliance with all statutory provisions that govern whether a patent is valid and enforceable, including those directed to, inter alia, obviousness, anticipation, enablement, and written description. The focus of this appeal is solely on 35 U.S.C. 101, the gatekeeper provision that determines what subject matter is eligible for patent protection.” AIPLA Amicus Brief, p. 3.
Rather than following the Supreme Court’s own precedent in earlier cases that addressed the patentability of “products of nature” (such as Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 303 (1980) and Funk Brothers Seed Co. v. Kalo Inoculant Co., 333 U.S. 127 (1948)), some of the Justices seem to focus on the difficulty of the invention. The Court’s own holding in Chakrabarty is that whether a composition of matter passes the eligibility threshold of 35 U.S.C. 101 depends on whether the claimed composition is “a product of human ingenuity ‘having a distinctive name, character, and use” from naturally occurring starting materials.” 447 U.S. at 309-10. However, some of the Justices seem to be focusing more on the level of human ingenuity involved than on the characteristics of the claimed composition. Not only so, but they appear to be turning the degree of difficulty on its head.
For example, some of Chief Justice Roberts’ questions to the attorney for Myriad Genetics focus on the difficulty of making a baseball bat from a tree branch as opposed to “simply” cutting the claimed DNA molecules out of a human gene.
“CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: My understanding -my understanding is that here, what’s involved, obviously through scientific processes, but we’re not talking about process. Here, what’s involved is snipping. You’ve got the thing there and you snip -snip off the top and you snip off the bottom and there you’ve got it.
According to Roberts’ remark, the former would be patent eligible but the latter is questionable.
In an even more absurd analogy, Justice Sonia Sotomayor compared the nucletotide sequence of isolated DNA to the natural ingredients in chocolate chip cookies such as eggs and flour.
With all due respect to Justice Roberts’ ability as a carpenter and Justice Sotomayor’s talents as a chef, these remarks signal the Court’s fundamental mis-characterization of the biological molecules involved in the case and the difficulty of obtaining them. The Supreme Court should uphold the Federal Circuit in finding the claimed isolated DNAs as patent eligible under 35 U.S.C. 101.
If these simplistic analogies were to win the day, might it not be possible (purely on the basis of 35 USC 101) to allow a patent for a new baseball bat and deny one for the Star Trek Warp Drive? Is there not something wrong with a jurisprudence that even entertains such questions? If the “person on the street” were asked “Which invention is more worthy of a patent: a new baseball bat or a warp drive?” can anyone credibly believe that the person would choose the former? Which advances the frontiers of science more?
The problem suggested by these simplistic analogies seems to be one of finding “laws of nature” (and thus ineligibility under 35 USC 101) the further that science goes towards the microscopic but not finding such “laws of nature” at the macroscopic level. Hence, such arguments as those above and in those presented earlier at the Federal Circuit (which Judge Lourie capably defeated).
On March 16, 2013, the first-inventor-to-file provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA) went into effect. The USPTO and many patent professionals predicted that there would be a huge influx of new patent application filings in the month before this deadline. Statistics from the USPTO Data Visualization Center confirm this. The following graph shows the rapid increase in the number of new (non-RCE and provisional) patent application filings in the month before March 16, 2013. The blue line is the number of non-RCE filings and the magenta line is the number of provisional filiings. Apparently, a lot of applicants wanted to take advantage of the pre-AIA first-to-invent law.

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