Appeal No. 96-3157 Page 7
Application 08/088,136
of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may
be patented if it meets the requirements for
patentability set forth in Title 35, such as those found
in ' 102, 103, and 112. The use of the expansive term
"any" in 101 represents Congress's intent not to place
any restrictions on the subject matter for which a patent
may be obtained beyond those specifically recited in 101
and the other parts of Title 35. . . . Thus, it is
improper to read into 101 limitations as to the subject
matter that may be patented where the legislative history
does not indicate that Congress clearly intended such
limitations. [In re Alappat, 33 F.3d 1526, 1542, 31
USPQ2d 1545, 1556 (Fed. Cir. 1994) (in banc)]
As cast, 35 U.S.C. § 101 defines four categories of
inventions that Congress deemed to be the appropriate subject
matter of a patent; namely, processes, machines, manufactures
and compositions of matter. The latter three categories
define "things" while the first category defines "actions"
(i.e., inventions that consist of a series of steps or acts to
be performed). See 35 U.S.C. § 100(b) ("The term 'process'
means process, art, or method, and includes a new use of a
known process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or
material.").
The Supreme Court has identified three categories of
subject matter that are unpatentable, namely "laws of nature,
natural phenomena, and abstract ideas." Diamond v. Diehr, 450
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