Patent Office Chief Calls for ‘Expansive’ Eligibility Regime

The head of the US Patent and Trademark Office argued for an expansive approach to patent eligibility in a written statement to the Senate’s intellectual property subcommittee, though he didn’t take an explicit position on legislation that would broaden the scope of eligible inventions.

The expansiveness of the law for patent-eligible inventions—Section 101 of the Patent Act—isn’t a “flaw” but a “feature” of the statute, PTO Director John Squires wrote in a Thursday statement for the record before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s IP subcommittee. The panel held a hearing Oct. 8 debating the latest version of the Patent Eligibility Restoration ...