Status quo Alice/Mayo exceptions restrict blockchain patenting---currently, only big corporations can patent the process, but not the tech.

Like the algorithm for converting binary-coded decimal numerals into pure binary form in Benson, and the mathematical formula for computing “alarm limits” in a catalytic conversion process in Flook, getting a patent on blockchain technology which uses a peer-to-peer network using proof-of-work to record a public history of transactions is like getting a patent on an algorithm, is directed to an abstract idea, and is likely going to fail the first step of the Mayo test under US law. Nonetheless, depending on the specific claims that the patent application makes, the patent may still pass muster as patentable subject matter if the second prong of the Mayo test is satisfied. Under step two, a claim that recites an abstract idea must include “additional features” to ensure that the claim “is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the [abstract idea].”20 The problem with overcoming step two of the Mayo test for all the pending patent applications for blockchain technology is going to be the fact that the algorithm behind the blockchain technology is already “well known in the art,” given Satoshi Nakamoto’s paper and the innumerable papers that followed which explain blockchain technology. In fact, universities across the United States are introducing courses on blockchain technology, some of which even provide an overview of the code behind blockchain.21 When the patent applications append conventional steps, specified at a high level of generality, it is not “enough” to supply an “inventive concept.”22 Nonetheless, even if the claim in these patent applications employs blockchain’s “well known” algorithm, if it uses the algorithm in a process designed to solve a technological problem in “conventional industry practice,” the assignee could still be granted the patent. For example, in Diamond v. Diehr, the inventor was granted the patent because the invention used a “thermocouple” to record constant temperature measurements inside the rubber mold—something “the industry ha[d] not been able to obtain.”23 In other words, while the technology’s core is already well known, important additions and variations can be patented.