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===Precedent===
===Precedent===
*Although the term “process” was not added to 35 U.S.C. § 101 until 1952 a process has historically enjoyed patent protection because it was considered a form of “art” as that term was used in the 1793 Act.
*“That a process may be patentable, irrespective of the particular form of the instrumentalities used, cannot be disputed.... A process is a mode of treatment of certain materials to produce a given result. It is an act, or a series of acts, performed upon the subject-matter to be transformed and reduced to a different state or thing. If new and useful, it is just as patentable as is a piece of machinery. In the language of the patent law, it is an art. The machinery pointed out as suitable to perform the process may or may not be new or patentable; whilst the process itself may be altogether new, and produce an entirely new result.
*“Transformation and reduction of an article ‘to a different state or thing’ is the clue to the patentability of a process claim that does not include particular machines.” 409 U.S., at 70, 93 S.Ct., at 256.
*“Transformation and reduction of an article ‘to a different state or thing’ is the clue to the patentability of a process claim that does not include particular machines.” 409 U.S., at 70, 93 S.Ct., at 256.
*Excluded from such patent protection are laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas.
*“[A] new mineral discovered in the earth or a new plant found in the wild is not patentable subject matter.

Revision as of 06:43, 7 February 2011

Diamond v. Diehr

Background

  • Respondents filed a patent application claiming invention for a process for molding raw, uncured synthetic rubber into cured precision products. While it was possible, by using well-known time, temperature and cure relationships, to calculate by means of an established mathematical equation when to open the molding press and remove the cured product, according to respondents the industry had not been able to measure precisely the temperature inside the press, thus making it difficult to make the necessary computations to determine the proper cure time. Respondents characterized their contribution to the art to reside in the process of constantly measuring the temperature inside the mold and feeding the temperature measurements into a computer that repeatedly recalculates the cure time by use of the mathematical equation and then signals a device to open the press at the proper time.
  • The patent examiner rejected respondents' claims on the ground that they were drawn to nonstatutory subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101, which provides for the issuance of patents to “[w]hoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof ....” The Patent and Trademark Office Board of Appeals agreed, but the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals reversed.

Precedent

  • Although the term “process” was not added to 35 U.S.C. § 101 until 1952 a process has historically enjoyed patent protection because it was considered a form of “art” as that term was used in the 1793 Act.
  • “That a process may be patentable, irrespective of the particular form of the instrumentalities used, cannot be disputed.... A process is a mode of treatment of certain materials to produce a given result. It is an act, or a series of acts, performed upon the subject-matter to be transformed and reduced to a different state or thing. If new and useful, it is just as patentable as is a piece of machinery. In the language of the patent law, it is an art. The machinery pointed out as suitable to perform the process may or may not be new or patentable; whilst the process itself may be altogether new, and produce an entirely new result.
  • “Transformation and reduction of an article ‘to a different state or thing’ is the clue to the patentability of a process claim that does not include particular machines.” 409 U.S., at 70, 93 S.Ct., at 256.
  • Excluded from such patent protection are laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas.
  • “[A] new mineral discovered in the earth or a new plant found in the wild is not patentable subject matter.