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Article: Federal Circuit To Re-Assess Standards For Patent-Eligible Subject Matter.(United States. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit)
- Article from:
- Mondaq Business Briefing
- Article date:
- April 7, 2008
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 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)
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The subject matter requirement prescribed in 35 U.S.C. section 101 has lately been back on the Federal Circuit Court's radar. Section 101 obligates a patent examiner to determine that the claimed invention qualifies as subject matter deemed patentable before she evaluates any other requirement for patentability. Until the fall of last year, this requirement was viewed generally as encompassing a broad scope of subject matter. The phrase "any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof," 35 U.S.C. section 101, had been interpreted broadly by both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit Court of ...