Hricik on 101

Prof Hricik has a new post on the Ethics Blog focusing on subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 walking through how the Supreme Court has treated intangible laws of nature as compared with tangible natural phenomenon (or as he calls them ‘natural products’).

With that framework, here is what the Supreme Court cases teach: If a method claim is deemed to embrace intangible subject matter, or if a product claim embraces a natural product, the claim is at least suspect.

The point here is that the Supreme Court’s precedent is really tied-in to claim type – product versus method.

Read it here: https://patentlyo.com/hricik/2013/11/my-second-belated-post-about-101.html