PTO Director Andrei Iancu Speaks Out Six Months Into Job

U.S. inventors, courts, and patent examiners need to know which types of inventions are eligible for patent protection, and clarifying that question is a top priority for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Director Andrei Iancu told Bloomberg Law.

Uncertainty about which inventions are abstract ideas or laws of nature—and therefore unpatentable—is discouraging investment in growing areas such as personalized medicine and cryptography, critics of the patent system say.

Rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court on down to the lower courts have contributed to the current situation, where the patent office, courts, and practitioners are all having trouble predicting whether ...