Eligibility and the U.S. Solicitor General: Patenting the Scientific, Technological, and Industrial Arts
by Dennis Crouch A decade ago, the US Supreme Court issued a pair of decisions that upended substantial aspects of patent practice.Mayo Collaborative Servs.v. Prometheus Labs., Inc., 566 U.S. 66 (2012); and Alice Corp. Pty.Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int'l, 573 U.S. 208 (2014).These cases broadened scope of the "abstract idea" and "law of nature" exclusions in ways that largely overlap with other patent law doctrines, such as obviousness, indefiniteness, and even enablement.