Intellectual Property Magazine
The interview process
Drew Schulte explains how to overcome subject matter eligibility rejections in the US using examiner interviews
Drew Schulte, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
As we near the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court of the US’ decision in Alice Corp v CLS Bank International,
1 we can compare the state of subject matter eligibility to the state of obviousness following KSR Int’l Co v Teleflex Inc,
2 which occurred seven years prior to Alice. Both decisions seemingly introduced additional subjectivity into their respective subject matters despite having the intention
to provide more objectivity. Alice introduced the two-part test, which quickly gained complexity through additional sub-parts (ie, ‘step 2A’ and ‘step 2B’),
and sub-parts to the sub-parts (ie, ‘step 2A Prong 1’ and ‘step 2A Prong 2’).