2014 Interim Guidance on Subject Matter Eligibility

The USPTO has issued the 2014 Interim Guidance on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility (Interim Eligibility Guidance) for USPTO personnel to use when determining subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. 101 in view of recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, including Alice Corp., Myriad, and Mayo. The Interim Eligibility Guidance supplements the June 25, 2014 Preliminary Examination Instructions issued in view of Alice Corp. and supersedes the March 4, 2014 Procedure for Subject Matter Eligibility Analysis of Claims Reciting or Involving Laws of Nature/Natural Principles, Natural Phenomena, and/or Natural Products issued in view of Mayo and Myriad. It is expected that the guidance will be updated in view of developments in the case law and in response to public feedback.

The following claim examples have been developed to illustrate the analysis set forth in the Interim Eligibility Guidance.

The USPTO is interested in receiving public feedback on the Interim Eligibility Guidance and the claim examples. Comments may be submitted in writing. Additionally, a public Eligibility Forum was held on January 21, 2015, where stakeholders had an opportunity to provide oral feedback. Details on submitting written comments follow below.

HOW TO COMMENT

Any member of the public may submit written comments on the Interim Eligibility Guidance and claim example sets by electronic mail message over the Internet addressed to 2014_interim_guidance@uspto.gov. Electronic comments submitted in plain text are preferred, but also may be submitted in ADOBE® portable document format or MICROSOFT WORD® format. The comments will be available for public inspection here at this Web page. Because comments will be available for public inspection, information that is not desired to be made public, such as an address or a phone number, should not be included in the comments. Comments will be accepted until March 16, 2015.

FORUM ON JANUARY 21, 2015

A public forum was held at the Alexandria campus of the USPTO on Jan. 21, 2015, to receive public feedback from interested members of the public. The Eligibility Forum was an opportunity for the Office to provide an overview of the Interim Eligibility Guidance and for participants to present their interpretation of the impact of Supreme Court precedent on the complex legal and technical issues involved in subject matter eligibility analysis during examination by providing oral feedback on the Interim Eligibility Guidance and claim example sets.

Forum Replay

Forum Agenda

Forum Presentations (in the order of presentation)