Appeal No. 1998-2849 Page 10 Application No. 08/584,158 "anything under the sun that is made by man." Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 303, 308-09 (1980). This perspective has been embraced by the Federal Circuit: The plain and unambiguous meaning of 101 is that any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition 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'Page: Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007