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Florida Law Review ForumMichael Risch
Nothing is Patentable
Response to Jeffrey Lefstin, Inventive Application: A History
It is a bedrock principle of patent law that abstract ideas and natural phenomena are not patentable. This idea is hardly controversial, because purely abstract and natural discoveries will not satisfy one of the explicit categories of patentable inventions: machines, methods, compositions of matter, or manufactures.1 Just above the bedrock, however, and controversy abounds when inventors claim the application of abstract ideas and laws of nature. Determining whether a simple application of an idea or phenomenon should be eligible for patenting is no easy task. Read More.