Diamond v. Diehr

Citation: Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U.S. 175 (1981).

The Supreme Court held that a process claim that included use of a computer program was patentable subject matter, concluding that “a claim drawn to subject matter otherwise statutory does not become nonstatutory simply because it uses a mathematical formula, computer program, or digital computer.” The Court “view[ed the patentees’] claims as nothing more than a process for molding rubber products and not as an attempt to patent a mathematical formula.” The Court repeated the observation that patentable subject matter can “include anything under the sun that is made by man,” as first stated in Diamond v. Chakrabarty, and once again conveyed a broad sense of the potential scope of patents.