|
|
Article: Neither Mental Process Nor A Signal (Per Se) Meets Threshold For Patentable Subject Matter.(Fisher-Price Inc.)(Gottschalks Inc.)(LeapFrog Enterprises Inc.)
- Article from:
- Mondaq Business Briefing
- Article date:
- October 31, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Mondaq Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Issuing two long-awaited decisions on the same day, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has clarified subject matter that falls outside the scope of patentable subject matter, intensifying a debate that has persisted in the wake of its nine-year-old State Street decision and finding that each of the applications failed to present patent subject matters under 35 U.S.C. s. 101.
In one case, the Court held that claims directed to a method for mandatory arbitration resolution were unpatentable subject matter under s. 101 because the claimed subject matter amounted to an unpatentable "mental process." In re Comiskey, Case No. 06-1286 (Fed. Cir., Sep. ...