Patent Eligibility: Legislative Change Still Appears Far Away

At the time of my last update in February on the state of patent eligibility law, the Supreme Court had recently declined to grant cert on Athena, Vanda, Berkheimer, Cellspin, Power Analytics, ChargePoint and Trading Technologies. The Court has now additionally denied petitions to address patent eligibility questions in The Chamberlain Group v. Techtronic Industries (the well-known “wireless garage door opener” litigation), as well as in three ex parte appeals of Christopher Primbas et al., Steve Morsa, and C. Douglass Thomas. And given that the congressional legislation sponsored by Senators Tillis and Coons has “stalled because stakeholders refused to compromise” (in the words of Senator Tillis), legislative change still appears to be far away, even in the event of a transition in Congress and/or the presidency.

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