1.
This Act may be cited as the
Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of
2025
.
2.
Congress finds the following:
(1)
As of the day before the date of enactment of this Act, patent eligibility
jurisprudence interpreting section 101 of title 35, United States Code, requires
significant modification and clarification.
(2)
For many years after the original enactment of section 101 of title 35, United
States Code, the Supreme Court of the United States and other courts created
judicial exceptions to the wording of that section, thereby rendering an
increasing number of inventions ineligible for patent protection.
(3)
Efforts by judges of district courts and courts of appeals of the United
States to apply the exceptions described in paragraph (2) to specific
circumstances have led to extensive confusion and a lack of consistency—
(A)
throughout the judicial branch of the
Federal Government and Federal agencies; and
(B)
among patent practitioners.
(4)
Many judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and
of various district courts of the United States have explicitly expressed the
need for more guidance with respect to the meaning of section 101 of title 35,
United States Code, and many patent owners, and persons that engage with patent
owners, complain that the interpretation of that section is extremely confusing
and difficult to discern and apply with any confidence.
(5)
Under this Act, and the amendments made by this Act, the state of the law
shall be as follows:
(A)
All judicial exceptions to patent
eligibility are eliminated.
(B)
Any invention or discovery that can be
claimed as a useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter,
or any useful improvement thereof, is eligible for patent protection, except
as explicitly provided in section 101 of title 35, United States Code, as
amended by this Act, as described in subparagraphs (D) and (E) of this
paragraph.
(C)
Sections 102, 103, and 112 of title 35, United States Code, will continue
to prescribe the requirements for obtaining a patent, but no such
requirement will be used in determining patent eligibility.
(D)
The following inventions shall not be eligible for patent
protection:
(i)
A mathematical formula that is not part of an invention that is in a
category described in subparagraph (B).
(ii)
A mental process performed solely in the mind of a human being.
(iii)
An unmodified human gene, as that gene exists in the human
body.
(iv)
An unmodified human gene that is isolated from the human body, but
otherwise the same as that gene exists in the human body.
(v)
An unmodified natural material, as
that material exists in nature.
(vi)
A process that is substantially economic, financial, business, social,
cultural, or artistic.
(E)
Under the exception described in subparagraph (D)(vi)—
(i)
process claims drawn solely to the
steps undertaken by human beings in methods of doing business,
performing dance moves, offering marriage proposals, and the like shall
not be eligible for patent coverage, and adding a non-essential
reference to a computer by merely stating, for example, do it on
a computer
shall not establish such eligibility; and
(ii)
any process that cannot be practically performed without the use of a
machine (including a computer) or manufacture shall be eligible for
patent coverage.
3.
(a)
Chapter 10 of title 35, United States Code, is amended—
(1)
in section 100—
(A)
in subsection (b), by striking includes a new use of a known
process
and inserting includes a use, application, or
method of manufacture of a known or naturally-occurring
process
; and
(B)
by adding at the end the following:
(k)
The term useful means, with respect to an
invention or discovery, that the invention or discovery has a
specific and practical utility from the perspective of a person
of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention or discovery
pertains.
; and
(2)
by amending section 101 to read as follows:
101.
(a)
Whoever invents or discovers any useful process, machine,
manufacture, or composition of matter, or any useful improvement
thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject only to the
exclusions in subsection (b) and to the further conditions and
requirements of this title.
(b)
(1)
Subject to paragraph (2), a person may not obtain a patent
for any of the following, if claimed as such:
(A)
A mathematical formula that is not part of a claimed
invention in a category described in subsection
(a).
(B)
A process that is substantially economic, financial,
business, social, cultural, or artistic, even though at
least 1 step in the process refers to a machine or
manufacture.
(C)
A process that—
(i)
is a mental
process performed solely in the human mind;
or
(ii)
occurs in nature wholly independent of, and prior
to, any human activity.
(D)
An unmodified human gene, as that gene exists in the
human body.
(E)
An unmodified natural material, as that material
exists in nature.
(2)
For the purposes of—
(A)
subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (1), the
claimed invention shall not be excluded from eligibility
for a patent if the invention cannot practically be
performed without the use of a machine or
manufacture;
(B)
paragraph (1)(D),
a human gene shall not be considered to be unmodified if
that human gene is—
(i)
purified,
enriched, or otherwise altered by human activity;
or
(ii)
otherwise employed in a useful invention or
discovery; and
(C)
paragraph (1)(E), a natural material shall not be
considered to be unmodified if that natural material
is—
(i)
isolated,
purified, enriched, or otherwise altered by human
activity; or
(ii)
otherwise employed in a useful invention or
discovery.
(c)
(1)
In determining whether, under this section, a claimed
invention is eligible for a patent, eligibility shall be
determined—
(A)
by considering the claimed invention as a whole and
without discounting or disregarding any claim element;
and
(B)
without regard to—
(i)
the manner in which the claimed invention was
made;
(ii)
whether a claim element is known, conventional,
routine, or naturally occurring;
(iii)
the state of the applicable art, as of the date on
which the claimed invention is invented; or
(iv)
any other consideration in section 102, 103, or
112.
(2)
(A)
In an action brought for infringement under this
title, the court, at any time, may determine whether an
invention or discovery that is a subject of the action
is eligible for a patent under this section, including
on motion of a party when there are no genuine issues of
material fact.
(B)
With respect to a determination described in
subparagraph (A), the court may consider limited
discovery relevant only to the eligibility described in
that subparagraph before ruling on a motion described in
that subparagraph.
.
(b)
Technical and conforming amendment
The table of sections for chapter 10 of title 35, United States Code, is
amended by striking the item relating to section 101 and inserting the
following:
101. Patent eligibility.
.
4.
(a)
Obviousness-Type double patenting
Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, may be construed to
affect or alter the judicially-created doctrine of obviousness-type double
patenting.
(b)
Insignificant extra-Solution activity
With respect to the exclusions to patent eligibility described in
subparagraphs (A) and (B) of section 101(b)(1) of title 35, United States Code,
as added by section 3 of this Act, the inclusion of pre- or post-solution
activity by a computer (or other machine or manufacture) in claim language shall
not be sufficient to confer patent eligibility on the claim if that computer (or
other machine or manufacture) is not necessary to practically perform the
invention.