Patentable subject matter
The problem of patentable subject matter arises usually in cases of biological and software inventions, and much less frequently in other areas of technology.According to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) patents may only be granted for physical embodiments of an idea, or a process that results in something that is tangible or can be sold.The EPO provides guidelines[7] for evaluating the patent-eligibility of computer-implemented inventions (CII), such as in particular based on Artificial Intelligence (AI).The two particularly contentious areas, with numerous reversals of prior legislative and judicial decisions, have been computer-based and biological inventions.Whereas the EPO adopted an exclusionary approach by denying patentability to specific types of inventions (discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods; aesthetic creations; schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers; presentations of information), the US Supreme Court in its Alice-Mayo framework proposed an inclusionary approach: instead of categorically excluding certain types of invention, an additional "inventive concept" is required to limit the scope of the patent claims to certain applications of a newly discovered algorithm or a law of nature.In the patentable subject matter analysis, however, this "discovery" is assumed to be prior art, and an "additional inventive concept" must be present in the claim.Flashpoints have included the patenting of naturally occurring biological material, genetic sequences, stem cells, "traditional knowledge," programs for computers, and business methods.