After Alice, the USPTO’s various guidance memoranda included references to non-precedential Federal Circuit decisions, particularly Smartgene, Cyberfone, and Planet Bingo, as examples of patent-ineligible subject matter.  Naturally, examiners cited these decisions in support of their Section 101 rejections.  Smartgene was the most frequently cited because the USPTO glossed it simply as “comparing new and stored information and using rules to identify options,” a characterization that allowed examiners to apply the case to just about any computer-implemented method.  I… Continue Reading