USIJ to Supremes: Set Boundaries on 101 Jurisprudence to Save U.S. Innovation
The Alliance of U.S. Startups & Inventors for Jobs has filed an amicus brief supporting American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc.’s petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming that many feel that “the U.S. patent system appears to be on life support”
The Petition
American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc. petitioned the High Court on December 28, 2020, asking it to review the Federal Circuit’s July 31, 2020 modified judgment and October 2019 panel opinion in the closely-watched Section 101 patent eligibility case involving driveshaft automotive technology. In that decision, a split (2-1) Federal Circuit panel, in affirming the district court’s holding, found the claims in question—directed to an industrial process for manufacturing an improved driveshaft for an automobile—ineligible for patenting as merely invoking a natural law, and “nothing more” because the claims “invoked the equation, F = kx (Hooke’s Law).” American Axle, 967 F.3d at 1304.
The questions American Axle is asking the Supreme Court to consider are:
What is the appropriate standard for determining whether a patent claim is “directed to” a patent-ineligible concept under step 1 of the Court’s two-step framework for determining whether an invention is eligible for patenting under 35 U.S.C. § 101?
Is patent eligibility (at each step of the Court’s two-step framework) a question of law for the court based on the scope of the claims or a question of fact for the jury based on the state of art at the time of the patent?
The petition argues, in a reference to a quote from Judge Moore, that the CAFC is “bitterly divided” on Section 101 law and that “the entire patent system is desperate for the Court’s guidance and has cried for its help.”