Extract
What is patentable subject matter? The Supreme Court dismissed LabCorp v. Metabolite Laboratories, but the issue is not going away.
Introduction
Patent law seeks to strike a balance regarding patentable subject matter between overprotection, which can impede the free exchange of ideas, and underprotection, which can lessen the incentive to invent. (1) Thus, what actually constitutes patentable subject matter under the Patent Act (2) is an important question and a question that the U.S. Supreme Court avoided in June 2006 by dismissing Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (LabCorp) v. Metabolite Laboratories, Inc. (3) Section 101 of the Patent Act regarding patentable subject matter was not argued in the court below so the Court did not decide LabCorp on the patentable subject matter issue. (4) Future litigants, however, will not likely neglect to argue this so the Court will no doubt face this issue again. This article will examine the LabCorp case and the issue of patentable subject matter, concluding with recommendations for when the issue is raised by subsequent litigants. It seems probable that the Court will again address the subject of statutory subject matter on a case brought properly before it and will strike the balance that will encourage innovation but will not extend protection to processes or business methods that are merely ideas, phenomena of nature, or laws of nature. I. PATENTABLE SUBJECT MATTER "The Congress shall have Power ... [t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." (5) Pursuant to this power, Congress passed several patent acts, starting...See the full content of this document
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