Podcasts Other Center for Internet and Society Patentable Subject Matter: The Problem of the Absent Gatekeeper

Patentable Subject Matter: The Problem of the Absent Gatekeeper

Published: Dec. 4, 2006, 7:30 p.m.

b'The federal courts used to act as gatekeepers who determined which sorts of inventions (which "subject matter" in patent-speak) should be patentable and which should not. The clear theory underlying this role was that some sorts of inventions simply should not be patentable. With the advent of computer software and the information age, however, the courts faced an assault on their old tests for whether a type of subject matter should be patentable. The courts reacted to this assault by abandoning the barricades and allowing patentability for virtually any sort of invention.'