News / Insights

  • Is Conventionality Considered at Alice’s Step One or Not?

    By Michael Kiklis | 02/24/2026 | Comments Off on Is Conventionality Considered at Alice’s Step One or Not?

    The Fed. Cir. just created a lot of confusion in my mind when it struck down today another AI patent for failing to recite patent eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. v. Amazon (nonprecedential). Obviously, this is another blow to the patent eligibility of AI after Recentive, and I’ll…

  • Does the Alice/Mayo test apply to natural phenomenon?

    By Michael Kiklis | 02/20/2026 | Comments Off on Does the Alice/Mayo test apply to natural phenomenon?

    The Fed. Cir. just issued a very interesting biotech patentable subject matter case under 35 U.S.C. § 101: REGENXBIO v. Sarepta Therapeutics. The reason why I find it interesting is because the court addressed whether the Alice/Mayo test applies to a natural phenomenon. The case involves host cells that include a recombinant nucleic acid molecule…

  • Clarity on Alice’s step one: GoTV Streaming v. Netflix

    By Michael Kiklis | 02/09/2026 | Comments Off on Clarity on Alice’s step one: GoTV Streaming v. Netflix

    The Federal Circuit today gave us some nice clarity on step one of Alice’s patentable subject matter analysis under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in GoTV Streaming v. Netflix. I plan on emphasizing this case in my articles, webinars, and speeches.

  • The Federal Circuit’s list of abstract ideas

    By Michael Kiklis | 02/07/2026 | Comments Off on The Federal Circuit’s list of abstract ideas

    As promised yesterday, here’s a pretty exhaustive list of abstract ideas found by the Fed. Cir. post Alice (and a few interesting legal points on step one). I don’t list duplicates. For example, I don’t list all of the variations of abstract ideas that fall under Electric Power Group. Perhaps I’ll save that for another…

  • Electric Power Group (EPG) strikes again! 

    By Michael Kiklis | 02/06/2026 | Comments Off on Electric Power Group (EPG) strikes again! 

    The Fed. Cir. today struck down claims directed to providing product location information within a store for failing to recite patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in Innovaport v. Target (nonprecedential). This was a nice, meaty decision (unlike the one I posted about earlier today). Perhaps this is because the claims not only…

  • Q Technologies v. Walmart (Fed. Cir.) (nonprecedential)

    By Michael Kiklis | 02/06/2026 | Comments Off on Q Technologies v. Walmart (Fed. Cir.) (nonprecedential)

    The Fed. Cir. yesterday issued a conclusory, patentable-subject-matter opinion under 35 U.S.C. § 101: Q Technologies v. Walmart (nonprecedential). The court basically just agreed with the district court in finding the claims patent ineligible with little, if any, explanation/analysis. The lesson to be learned here is that if a contested claim can be characterized as…

  • Fed. Cir. strikes down web-conferencing patent for lack of patentable subject matter

    By Michael Kiklis | 01/22/2026 | Comments Off on Fed. Cir. strikes down web-conferencing patent for lack of patentable subject matter

    The Fed. Cir. today struck down a web-conferencing patent for failure to recite patent eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101: US Patent No. 7,679,637 v. Google. This is not a typo; the name of the plaintiff-appellant is this patent number. Overall, there is nothing surprising in the case, but the court had a…

  • Fed. Cir. uses Electric Power Group as its primary consideration in its patentable subject matter analysis

    By Michael Kiklis | 01/20/2026 | Comments Off on Fed. Cir. uses Electric Power Group as its primary consideration in its patentable subject matter analysis

    Here’s an interesting patentable subject matter case under 35 U.S.C. § 101. On Friday, the Federal Circuit seemingly used Electric Power Group as its primary consideration, while downplaying claim limitations tied to technological improvements described in the specification.

  • The Fed. Cir. issues another 35 U.S.C. § 101 case, ending the several-months-long drought

    By Michael Kiklis | 01/06/2026 | Comments Off on The Fed. Cir. issues another 35 U.S.C. § 101 case, ending the several-months-long drought

    Finally, after several months, the Fed. Cir. today issued another patentable subject matter case under 35 U.S.C. § 101: Technology in Ariscale v. Razer (nonprecedential). The district court below found patent ineligible claims directed to “‘[a] computer-implemented method for decoding a transmission signal’ that comprises steps including ‘receiving,’ ‘deinterleaving,’ ‘combining,’ and ‘decoding’ the information in…

  • Subject Matter Eligibility of Artificial Intelligence and the Problems with a Functionally Drafted Patent

    By Michael Kiklis | 12/12/2025 | Comments Off on Subject Matter Eligibility of Artificial Intelligence and the Problems with a Functionally Drafted Patent

    The AIPLA’s INNOVATE Magazine just published the article I wrote for my panel discussion at the AIPLA annual meeting. It deals with patent eligibility of AI as well as avoiding problems with 112(f). Here’s a link: Subject Matter Eligibility of Artificial Intelligence and the Problems with a Functionally Drafted Patent