IP Groups Urge High Court to Make Patent Eligibility Predictable

Conflicting rulings over which inventions are eligible for patent protection have left the U.S. patent system “on life support,” a startup group told the U.S. Supreme Court in a brief urging the justices to weigh the issue.

The Alliance of U.S. Startups & Inventors for Jobs wants the court to review a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision that held American Axle & Manufacturing Inc.'s driveshaft patent ineligible as directed to a natural law. The high court has passed on dozens of chances to clarify the law on patent eligibility since its 2014 ruling, in Alice Corp. ...