USPTO Guidance On Computer-Implemented Inventions And Abstract Ideas

On January 27, 2015, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) released a list of examples¹ to supplement the 2014 Interim Guidance on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility.² The examples are directed toward computer-implemented inventions, and include four claim sets that the USPTO suggests are patent eligible and four that are not. The examples apply the test for subject matter eligibility as described by the U.S. Supreme Court in Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, et al.³

The USPTO's patent examiner guidance for subject matter eligibility breaks down into three parts.⁴ First, the patent examiner must determine if the claim is a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.⁵ If so, the patent examiner must then determine if the claim is directed to a judicial exception such as a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea.⁶ An abstract idea may include "a fundamental economic practice, a method of organizing