Making Patents Great Again?

Russ Binns quoted in Richard Lloyd’s “Making Patents Great Again” story in IAM Magazine:

Russell Binns, CEO, Allied Security Trust
Fixing subject-matter eligibility under Section 101 should be a top priority over the next four years. I would like to see legislative changes made to eliminate the judicially created exceptions (laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas). Every case that has found a patent ineligible under these exceptions could have been more easily handled through applications of obviousness, novelty or written description or enablement. These exceptions to patentability – most recently applied by the Supreme Court in Alice – have left patent owners uncertain about the value and enforceability of many of their patents and district court judges struggling to apply Supreme Court precedent evenly on a case-by-case basis. Alice and other related Supreme Court cases have muddied the waters terribly and weakened the US patent system. Congress should do away with these exceptions and let innovative ideas live or die based on their novelty or non-obviousness.

Richard Lloyd’s complete story may be found here.