The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2025 aims to significantly modify and clarify patent eligibility jurisprudence under Section 101 of title 35, United States Code. Congress finds that prior judicial interpretations have created confusion, rendering many inventions ineligible; thus, this Act seeks to eliminate these judicial exceptions. It ensures that any useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter is eligible for patent protection, explicitly separating eligibility from other patentability requirements like novelty and non-obviousness. The bill establishes specific categories of inventions that are not eligible for patent protection. These exclusions include a mathematical formula not part of a claimed invention, a mental process performed solely in the human mind, and a process occurring in nature wholly independent of human activity. Also excluded are unmodified human genes and unmodified natural materials as they exist in nature, along with processes that are substantially economic, financial, business, social, cultural, or artistic. Important conditions and exceptions apply to these exclusions: a mathematical formula or an economic/business process may be eligible if the invention cannot practically be performed without a machine or manufacture . Human genes or natural materials are not "unmodified" if purified, enriched, altered by human activity, or employed in a useful invention. Eligibility determinations must consider the claimed invention as a whole, without discounting any element, and without regard to how it was made or whether elements are known.
Intellectual propertyJudicial procedure and administrationJudicial review and appeals
Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2025
USA119th CongressS-1546| Senate
| Updated: 5/1/2025
The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2025 aims to significantly modify and clarify patent eligibility jurisprudence under Section 101 of title 35, United States Code. Congress finds that prior judicial interpretations have created confusion, rendering many inventions ineligible; thus, this Act seeks to eliminate these judicial exceptions. It ensures that any useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter is eligible for patent protection, explicitly separating eligibility from other patentability requirements like novelty and non-obviousness. The bill establishes specific categories of inventions that are not eligible for patent protection. These exclusions include a mathematical formula not part of a claimed invention, a mental process performed solely in the human mind, and a process occurring in nature wholly independent of human activity. Also excluded are unmodified human genes and unmodified natural materials as they exist in nature, along with processes that are substantially economic, financial, business, social, cultural, or artistic. Important conditions and exceptions apply to these exclusions: a mathematical formula or an economic/business process may be eligible if the invention cannot practically be performed without a machine or manufacture . Human genes or natural materials are not "unmodified" if purified, enriched, altered by human activity, or employed in a useful invention. Eligibility determinations must consider the claimed invention as a whole, without discounting any element, and without regard to how it was made or whether elements are known.