Less than a year after holding that generic machine-learning patents are abstract in Recentive Analytics, Inc. v. Fox Corp., the Federal Circuit may be refining where to draw the line on patent eligibility....more
Section 101 eligibility remains one of the most unpredictable and frequently contested areas of U.S. patent practice, particularly for software, artificial intelligence, and machine learning....more
Recentive Analytics, Inc. v. Fox Corp., No. 23-2437 (Fed. Cir. 2025) – On April 18, 2025, the Federal Circuit upheld the district court’s dismissal of the case on the ground that the patents were ineligible under § 101....more
The new United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John A. Squires was sworn in on September 22, 2025 and wasted no time that week in expanding patent eligibility for AI related inventions. ...more
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has issued a decision in an ex parte appeal reversing an examiner’s final rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 of claims directed to artificial intelligence (AI) based business methods. Ex...more
Introduction - The new United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John A. Squires was sworn in on September 22, 2025 and wasted no time that week in expanding patent eligibility for AI related inventions. In...more
What’s New: USPTO Embraces Evidence-Driven § 101 Practice - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued two coordinated memoranda explaining how applicants can use Subject Matter Eligibility Declarations...more
One might be forgiven for assuming, based on a cursory reading of the Constitution or perhaps a fleeting bout of logic, that the U.S. patent system exists to promote the progress of science and useful arts. Historically, this...more
Every year has its “it” term.In 2025, the crown belonged to AI, and rightfully so. AI dominated the headlines, flooded the USPTO’s dockets, and triggered more §101 rejections than any examiner would care to admit. If you...more
On December 4, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a memorandum to the Patent Examining Corps reinforcing its existing subject matter eligibility framework under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and calling renewed attention to...more
Patent practitioners have seen a shifting landscape for patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 since the Supreme Court’s 2012 and 2014 seminal decisions in Mayo and Alice. Now, the United States Patent and Trademark Office...more
On November 4, 2025, the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) designated as precedential an appeals review panel (ARP) decision vacating the Patent Trial & Appeal Board’s § 101 rejection of claims...more
On October 31, 2025, Director Squires spoke to the American Intellectual Property Law Association and provided a forceful statement on his view for the direction of patent law. Of particular interest were his comments on...more
For a decade, innovators at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and precision medicine have faced a stubborn paradox: the very breakthroughs in software and machine learning that enable early cancer detection and...more
With the continued rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), the question of how the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “USPTO”) and courts will apply patent-eligibility requirements to AI has been at the...more
In a rare procedural move, the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) director-convened Appeals Review Panel (ARP) recently vacated a § 101 rejection that had been introduced by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board...more
New U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John Squires has been on the job less than a month, but he has already indicated a significant shift in the USPTO’s willingness to extend patent protection to artificial...more
Last week, the USPTO published a rare Appeals Review Panel (ARP) decision in Ex parte Desjardins, Appeal 2024-000567, September 26, 2025 (“ARP Decision”), that reversed a finding of ineligible subject matter in a patent...more
A significant Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision authored by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) leadership, including the new USPTO Director John A. Squires, signals the importance of artificial...more
Just days after John A. Squires was sworn in as the 60th Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on September 23, 2025, he convened the rarely used Appeals Review Panel (ARP) and issued a decision in Ex parte...more
Just a few days into his tenure as director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, John A. Squires has sent a message to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to tone down its aggressive use of § 101. This message comes...more
Patent applications for artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and other software-related inventions are often rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office (Patent Office) as being too abstract and thus ineligible...more
The August 4, 2025 memorandum (Memo) issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) clarifies how examiners should approach subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Importantly, the Memo provides critical...more
Deputy Commissioner for Patents Charles Kim issued a memorandum to three technology centers reminding examiners how subject matter eligibility should be evaluated under 35 USC § 101. These technology centers often handle...more
On August 4, 2025, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) released a new memorandum to patent examiners in Technology Centers 2100, 2600, and 3600, providing targeted reminders on evaluating subject matter eligibility...more