{"id":4905,"date":"2017-02-16T15:38:25","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T15:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sls.gmu.edu\/cpip\/?p=4905"},"modified":"2026-02-03T21:02:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:02:05","slug":"ipo-publishes-analysis-of-recently-released-legislative-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/2017\/02\/16\/ipo-publishes-analysis-of-recently-released-legislative-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"[Archived Post] IPO Publishes Analysis of Recently Released Legislative Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1918 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2012\/08\/iStock_000020099378_Medium-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"dictionary entry for the word &quot;innovate&quot;\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>Last week, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) released a <a href=\"http:\/\/src.bna.com\/lQ6\"><u>proposed revision<\/u><\/a> to the section of the Patent Act that defines the subject matter eligible for patenting.\u00a0 I <a href=\"http:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/2017\/02\/01\/ipo-proposes-legislative-solution-to-the-morass-of-patent-eligibility\/\"><u>discussed<\/u><\/a> the importance of the proposal, noting that there have been several calls for legislative solutions to overly restrictive understanding of what inventions are eligible for patents.<\/p>\n<p>IPO has followed their proposal with a detailed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ipo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/20170207_IPO-101-TF-Proposed-Amendments-and-Report.pdf\"><u>analysis<\/u><\/a> of what the revisions accomplish.\u00a0 The most important contribution of the proposal is its reaffirmation of the original congressional intent: subject matter eligibility is meant to be a coarse filter, and issues related to the breadth of the claims are dealt with by statutory sections covering novelty, nonobviousess, enablement and the like.\u00a0 Furthermore, any exceptions to the categories of patentable subject matter will be determined by statute.\u00a0 Consequently, vague judicial exceptions and the subjective notion of \u201cinventive concept\u201d are replaced by easily applied statutory rules.<\/p>\n<p>IPO\u2019s analysis also discusses the vast harms that have been caused by overly restricting the kinds of inventions that are patentable. In addition to examples I have discussed previously, such as an <a href=\"http:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/2016\/10\/27\/federal-circuit-improperly-extends-abstract-idea-exception-to-industrial-machines\/\"><u>oil rig<\/u><\/a>, IPO notes that courts have found <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar_case?case=8329573663921142704&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr\"><u>forehead scanning thermometers<\/u><\/a> and fighter pilot helmets ineligible for patenting.\u00a0 CPIP Senior Scholar <a href=\"http:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/about\/our-team\/chris-holman\/\"><u>Chris Holman<\/u><\/a> has <a href=\"http:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2014\/04\/Holman-Critical-Role-of-Patents-in-Genetic-Diagnostic-Tests.pdf\"><u>discussed<\/u><\/a> how these restrictions on patentability harm the development of diagnostic tests and CPIP Founder <a href=\"http:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/about\/our-team\/adam-mossoff\/\"><u>Adam Mossoff<\/u><\/a> led a Supreme Court <a href=\"http:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2016\/04\/Sequenom-v-Ariosa-Amicus-Brief-of-19-Law-Professors.pdf\"><u><em>amicus<\/em> brief<\/u><\/a> with other CPIP Senior Scholars in support of the petitioner in <em>Sequenom v. Ariosa<\/em>, which involved a highly innovative method of using maternal blood to detect fetal abnormalities.<\/p>\n<p>The absurdity of recent patentability decisions and the general trend in court decisions away from the statute demonstrates the need for a fix. IPO\u2019s proposal provides this fix and their follow on analysis demonstrates how this fix will work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) released a proposed revision to the section of the Patent Act that defines the subject matter eligible for patenting.\u00a0 I discussed the importance of the proposal, noting that there have been several calls for legislative solutions to overly restrictive understanding of what inventions are eligible for patents. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3627,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15821,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905\/revisions\/15821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}