Key Takeaways:
- On May 15, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court denied two highly watched petitions for certiorari, refusing to hear cases that dealt with the patent eligible subject matter requirement of 35 U.S.C. ' 101.
- The Supreme Court's decision to pass on these cases marks the second time in less than a year that the Court has declined to take up cases dealing with patent eligibility despite a recommendation from the U.S. Solicitor General to grant certiorari for the purpose of providing clarification on this area of the law.
- Now, the focus of those advocating for reform of 35 U.S.C ' 101 will likely return to Congress and the bipartisan efforts of Republican Senator Tillis (N.C.) and Democratic Senator Coons (Del.).
Background and Discussion
On May 15, 2023, the Supreme Court denied certiorari petitions in two separate cases that invalidated patents pursuant to 35 U.S.C. ' 101 despite the U.S. Solicitor General urging the Court to take both cases.
The first case, Interactive Wearables, LLC v. Polar Electro Oy, dealt with patent claims directed to a media "content player" with a "remote control" that displays information associated with the played content.1 The District Court invalidated these claims under ' 101 applying the two-part framework from the Supreme Court's 2014 Alice v. CLS Bank decision: determining first whether the claims were directed to an abstract idea (Step 1) and, if so, whether there is an inventive concept beyond the abstract idea that saves the claims...
