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Patent

2011

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College of Law Faculty

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Patent System And Climate Change, Joshua Sarnoff Mar 2011

The Patent System And Climate Change, Joshua Sarnoff

College of Law Faculty

The amount of greenhouse gas emissions and consequent climate changes and social responses will depend substantially upon the rapid development and widespread dissemination of a wide variety of new mitigation and adaptation technologies. The international approach adopted by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Cancun will focus the worldwide innovation system more closely on private funding and markets, and thus on the acquisition of patents at the front end of the coming innovation pipeline. The choice to rely on private markets and patents is highly debatable. But it is certain to create substantial tensions for the patent system …


Patent Eligible Medical And Biotechnology Inventions After Bilski, Prometheus, And Myriad, Joshua Sarnoff Feb 2011

Patent Eligible Medical And Biotechnology Inventions After Bilski, Prometheus, And Myriad, Joshua Sarnoff

College of Law Faculty

In Bilski v. Kappos, the U.S. Supreme Court continued to require that patentable subject matter eligibility determinations under Section 101 be made by reference to three historic, categorical exclusions, for scientific principles, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas. This excluded subject matter must be treated as if already known even when newly discovered by the applicant. Unlike in other jurisdictions, the excluded subject matter thus cannot contribute creativity to the claimed inventions, either for eligibility or for patentability evaluations. The Federal Circuit has reluctantly applied eligibility doctrine after Bilski, holding in Prometheus v. Mayo that claims to treatment methods applying the …


Patent Eligible Inventions After Bilski: History And Theory, Joshua Sarnoff Feb 2011

Patent Eligible Inventions After Bilski: History And Theory, Joshua Sarnoff

College of Law Faculty

The U.S. Supreme Court has continued to require that patentable subject matter eligibility determinations under Section 101 be made by reference to three historic, categorical exclusions, for scientific principles, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas, which must be treated as if already known even when newly discovered by the applicant. Various thoughtful scholars have alternatively urged that these exclusions from the patent system should be viewed restrictively or that eligibility decisions should be avoided. But these scholars underappreciate the benefits of categorical exclusions and particularly of treating them as if they were already known prior art, and in any event the …