Topic
Patent Eligibility
451 published works
Patent Law Weblog
The Mental Process Exception to Patentability is Absurd, but Here’s a Quick Fix
By Michael Borella –Grab a pencil. Now train a large language model.Not a big one, mind you. Let’s go small, something in the range of a few billion parameters, trained…
Zalma on Insurance
John Madden and The US Patent and Trademark Office
By Barry Zalma
Blockchain Fraud Detection Loses Protection John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American Professional Football Coach and Sports Commentator in the National Football League Seeking…
PatentNext
Federal Circuit Finds Concrete Technological Improvement Supports Patent Eligibility in Ceiva Opco
PatentNext Takeaway: Ceiva Opco, LLC v. Amazon.com, Inc. illustrates how a concrete technological improvement can support patent eligibility. The Federal Circuit found that a digital picture frame system with a…
IP IQ
USPTO SMED Update: What Does It Mean to “Weigh” Evidence of Patent Eligibility?
On Sept. 29, the USPTO issued another memorandum as well as a new flowchart addressing applicant “subject matter eligibility declarations” (SMEDs) submitted to establish eligibility under Section 101. This is…
IP Law Watch
The Receivership Estate of AudienceScience Inc. v. Google LLC: The Federal Circuit’s Continuing Skepticism over Targeted Advertising Patents
By Connie Jaw
In The Receivership Estate of AudienceScience Inc. v. Google LLC, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s grant of judgment on the pleadings that patents covering targeted advertisement are ineligible…
PatentNext
Software Inventions And Section 101: An Often Overlooked Argument For Demonstrating A Patent-Eligible Improvement
PatentNext Takeaway: An improvement in the functioning of a computer, or an improvement to other technology or technical field, can provide an overlooked response to a software patent eligibility rejection.…
PatentNext
Federal Circuit Finds AI-Based Dental Monitoring Patent Claims Abstract Under Section 101
PatentNext Takeaway: The Federal Circuit’s decision in Dental Monitoring SAS v. Align Technology, Inc., No. 2024-2270 (Fed. Cir. July 7, 2026), provides another important warning for patent applicants seeking protection…
Patent Law Weblog
PTAB § 101 Affirmance Rates Dip under Director Squires
By Michael Borella and Walter DeGroft[1] –For the fifth consecutive year, we have surveyed how the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decides appeals of § 101 rejections from examiners. …
Truth on the Market
A Patent, a Blood Test, and 20 Years of Waiting
A blood test now helps doctors decide, in about 15 minutes, whether a patient with a suspected brain injury needs a CT scan. It took about 20 years to get…
Patent Law Weblog
Improving the Abstract Idea: How a Rhetorical Move Undermines § 101 Analysis of Technical Improvements in Software Inventions
By Michael Borella – More than a decade after Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l, the two-step framework for patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 remains as contentious as…