Subject-Matter Eligibility and Patentability

Overview

This family acts as a threshold screen before the review turns to sufficiency, support, or inventive-step questions. Subject-matter eligibility is a preliminary question: is the claimed invention even the type of thing that can be patented?

Topic 5.1: Statutory Subject Matter

The statutory subject matter materials are U.S.-focused and center on the Alice/Mayo two-step framework used to determine whether a patent claim is directed to a judicially excluded category. The four-step version (Alice Step 1, Step 2A Prong 1, Step 2A Prong 2, and Step 2B) is now the operative test applied by the USPTO and courts.

Topic 5.2: Patentable Subject Matter

This topic collects the cases and categories where patent eligibility has been found, covering biotechnology products and methods, pharmaceutical compositions, computer-implemented inventions, and other patentable categories in the United States and Europe.

Topic 5.3: Non-Patentable Subject Matter

This topic collects the extensive case law on when claims have been found ineligible, including isolated genomic DNA, natural correlations, diagnostic methods without meaningful physical steps, and abstract ideas implemented on generic computers. The list of non-patentable categories is especially rich in the life sciences.

Source Reference QuickSilver Intellectual Property Services

📥 Subject-Matter Eligibility and Patentability — PDF

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (2026 by QuickSilver IP)

Why This Family Matters

This family functions as a threshold screen — it must be cleared before the substantive review of sufficiency, claim support, and inventive step can even begin.

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