By: J. Gibson Lanier, Ph.D Just when the patent prosecution community thought that, for better or worse, the standards relating to the subject matter eligibility of claims were set for examination, the standards have moved again following the Mayo/Alice decisions. On Thursday, the USPTO released its latest subject matter eligibility examination guidelines for 35 U.S.C. § 101, evidencing just how unworkable the Mayo/Alice test is from a practical standpoint. This iteration of guidelines for examination is the third such revision and provides new examples of what may be subject matter eligible for biotechnology patents, but does not provide additional examples… Read more
Tag: J. Gibson Lanier
Supreme Court Calendar is IP-Heavy for 2016
By J. Gibson Lanier Maybe Chief Justice Roberts did not get the memo, but despite reports that he desires to limit access to the courts, this does not appear to be true with respect to matters relating to intellectual property. True, this may not be 2013 with significant rulings on 35 U.S.C. § 101, but to be sure the potential Supreme Court calendar for 2016 will have a significant impact on intellectual property. It will interesting to see how these cases will be handled, particularly with the present vacancy in the Court. Among the cases already accepted by the court… Read more