Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2025

The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2025 aims to significantly reform patent eligibility law in the United States, specifically addressing issues with Section 101 of title 35, United States Code. Congress finds that judicial interpretations have created extensive confusion and inconsistency, leading to an increasing number of inventions being deemed ineligible for patent protection. This bill seeks to eliminate these judicially created exceptions and provide clearer, more consistent guidance for patent eligibility determinations. The Act amends Section 101 to broadly state that any useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any useful improvement thereof, is eligible for patent protection. It then establishes specific, narrow exclusions, such as mathematical formulas not integrated into an invention, mental processes performed solely in the human mind, and unmodified human genes or natural materials as they exist in nature. Additionally, processes that are substantially economic, financial, business, social, cultural, or artistic are generally excluded. Crucially, the bill clarifies that certain exclusions do not apply if the invention cannot practically be performed without a machine or manufacture, or if natural materials or genes are modified or employed in a useful invention. The Act explicitly mandates that patent eligibility must be determined by considering the claimed invention as a whole, without discounting any claim element or considering factors related to novelty, non-obviousness, or written description requirements. This separation aims to streamline the patent examination and litigation process by ensuring eligibility is a distinct inquiry.