USPTO Revised Patent Eligibility Guidelines Significantly Eases Path To Obtaining Computer-Related Patents

On January 7, 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance, a major update to the examination guidelines for evaluating whether a patent claim is patent eligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The revised guidelines primarily address the patent eligibility analysis that most typically arises in patent applications that can be characterized as being related to business methods and software. Rejection rates for patent ineligible subject matter spiked following the Supreme Court's 2014 Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int'l decision. Subsequent developments in the case law by the Federal Circuit have provided some relief to some applicants, but applicants seeking patent protection in the impacted technology fields have continued to face challenges and uncertainty in prosecuting their patent applications.