This article appeared in The Intellectual Property Strategist, an ALM/Law Journal Newsletters publication that provides a practical source of both business and litigation tactics in the fast-changing area of intellectual property law, including litigating IP rights, patent damages, venue and infringement issues, inter partes review, trademarks on social media – and more.
The U.S. Constitution empowers Congress to create a patent system to promote the useful arts, and Congress has enacted laws to create a patent system that encourages innovation. Balancing that power, however, the courts in recent years have tried to reign in the scope of the patent right by limiting the scope of patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101.
