Restricted patentable subject matter will reduce innovation because of increased risk of patent ineligibility

[Emily G. Blevins and Kevin J. Hickey, 1-3-24, Emily is an Congressional Research Service Science and Technology Policy Analyst and Kevin is a Congressional Research Service legislative attorney, Congressional Research Service, “Patent-Eligible Subject Matter Reform: An Overview,” , accessed: 7-9-24, ES]

Innovation in emerging technology areas may face unique challenges because of the restricted scope of patent-eligible subject matter, as well as the variability in how such standards are interpreted by patent examiners and the courts. For example, one area of policy concern relates to patent-eligible subject matter standards as they apply to innovations in AI. Though the number of patent applications pertaining to AI has increased over the past 10 years, some stakeholders have reported concern that AI inventions are at risk of patent ineligibility under the current framework because “they may be characterized as methods of organizing human activity, mental processes, or mathematical concepts.”

Given the growing importance of AI technologies, USPTO analyzed patent examination data to study the effect of the Alice/Mayo framework on AI. USPTO’s study evaluated whether the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Alice, which rejected a patent claim on a method of mitigating settlement risk in financial transactions using a computer, impacted the agency’s allowance rates for patent applications containing AI. USPTO reported suggestive evidence that Alice impacted AI technologies differentially.