Patentable subject matter

Section 101 of the current U.S. patent law (35 U.S.C. §101) provides that:


 * Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.

Process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter and new and useful improvements constitute the categories of patentable subject matter. The statutory content of process is amplified in section 100(b). The term apparatus is used interchangeably with machine in U.S. patent law.

These categorical labels are legal “words of art” &mdash; that is, their meaning can only be understood by reference to the court decisions which have added or subtracted phenomena from these categories over the history of patent adjudication. In the course of this development, the courts have enunciated various rules for including or excluding phenomena.

[[Category:Legislation]