Steve Pollinger, Managing Principal of the firm’s Austin office recently discussed the hotly contested issue of subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. §101 in an article published in Law360 titled “Time for PTO to Allow Direct Claiming of ‘Computer Software.’” The article proposes that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) amend its subject matter eligibility guidelines, and all other related guidance, to make clear that claims may be expressly directed to “computer software.” The article suggests that doing so would bring the PTO’s practice in line with recent Supreme Court and Federal Circuit case law, and help innovators to better protect their software inventions.
The full article can be found here.