On January 7, 2019, the new guidelines for patent subject eligibility went into effect at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). These guidelines, titled “2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance” (herein “2019 Guidelines”), were the fifth update issued by the USPTO regarding subject matter eligibility since the Supreme Court’s opinions in the Myriad, Mayo, and Alice cases. As a result of the trio of cases, the USPTO had developed the Alice/Mayo test to determine subject matter eligibility. The Alice/Mayo test was a two-step test, with Step 1 determining whether the claim is directed to a process, machine,… Read more