In a recent op-ed for Bloomberg Law, C4IP Board Members and retired Federal Circuit Judges Paul Michel and Kathleen O’Malley argue that Congress must pass the bipartisan Patent Eligibility Restoration Act in order to repair the damage the Supreme Court has inflicted on America’s innovation ecosystem.
For more than a decade, a series of rulings has narrowed the types of inventions eligible for patent protection.
The Court’s 2012 Mayo v. Prometheus decision effectively stripped patent eligibility from medical diagnostics, triggering an estimated $9 billion drop in diagnostic investment over the next four years. Then came Alice v. CLS Bank, which led to a sweeping denial of software and AI patents. As Judges Michel and O’Malley point out, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected most AI patent applications it received in 2018 because they were deemed ineligible.
These rulings have slowed America’s progress in critical areas like biological manufacturing and artificial intelligence while global counterparts, particularly China, surge ahead.
“By restoring patent eligibility for categories of inventions that courts have wrongly declared ineligible… PERA would once again give US inventors and companies confidence to invest in technologies that will define our future,” Judges Michel and O’Malley write. “After over a decade of ongoing harm, it is time for Congress to fix the Supreme Court’s mistakes.”
Read the full op-ed here:
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/patent-eligibility-restoration-act-would-fuel-us-competitiveness