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July 2, 2008
101 Clarification
An
interoffice memo on examining claims for § 101 compliance issued to the
USPTO examiner corps in mid-May.
Based on Supreme Court precedent and recent Federal Circuit decisions, the Office's guidance to examiners is that a § 101 process must (1) be tied to another statutory class (such as a particular apparatus) or (2) transform underlying subject matter (such as an article or materials) to a different state or thing. If neither of these requirements is met by the claim, the method is not a patent eligible process under § 101 and should be rejected as being directed to nonstatutory subject matter.
Posted by Patent Hawk at July 2, 2008 1:18 AM | § 101