H.R. 3152 — Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2025

This section states congressional findings concerning patent eligibility jurisprudence under 35 U.S.C. §101, including that courts have created judicial exceptions leading to confusion among judges, agencies, and practitioners; that such jurisprudence requires significant clarification; and that, under this Act, all judicial exceptions are eliminated such that any invention or discovery claimed as a useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or useful improvement thereof, is eligible for patent protection except (1) a mathematical formula not part of such an invention; (2) a mental process performed solely in the human mind; (3) an unmodified human gene as it exists in the body or isolated but otherwise unmodified; (4) an unmodified natural material as it exists in nature; or (5) a substantially economic, financial, business, social, cultural, or artistic process (provided, such ineligible processes exclude those practically requiring a machine or manufacture and are not rendered eligible by non-essential computer references). (Thus, §§102, 103, and 112 of title 35, U.S. Code, govern patentability requirements other than eligibility.)

This section revises the definition of "process" under 35 U.S.C. §100(b) to include a use, application, or method of manufacture of a known or naturally-occurring process (from a new use of a known process); adds a definition of "useful" invention or discovery as one with specific and practical utility from the perspective of a person of ordinary skill in the art; and replaces 35 U.S.C. §101 with comprehensive patent eligibility criteria. The new §101(a) permits patents for any useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter (or useful improvement thereof), subject to exclusions in subsection (b) and other title requirements. Subsection (b)(1) excludes from patentability (A) mathematical formulas claimed alone; (B) substantially economic, financial, business, social, cultural, or artistic processes (even if referring to a machine or manufacture); (C) mental processes performed solely in the human mind or processes occurring wholly in nature independent of human activity; (D) unmodified human genes as they exist in the body; and (E) unmodified natural materials as they exist in nature. Subsection (b)(2) provides conditions overcoming exclusions, including for (A)-(B) if the invention cannot practically be performed without a machine or manufacture; for (D) if the human gene is purified, enriched, altered by human activity, or employed in a useful invention; and for (E) if the natural material is isolated, purified, enriched, altered by human activity, or employed in a useful invention. (Thus, synthetic, modified, or applied versions of natural genes or materials generally remain patent-eligible.) Subsection (c)(1) requires eligibility determinations to consider the claimed invention as a whole without discounting elements or regard to how it was made, whether elements are known or conventional, the state of the art, or considerations under §§102, 103, or 112. Subsection (c)(2) authorizes courts in infringement actions to resolve eligibility at any time, including on motion with no genuine issues of material fact and limited relevant discovery.

This section specifies rules of construction for the Act. (1) It provides that nothing in the Act affects the judicially-created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting (i.e., doctrine barring patent claims obvious over claims in the same inventor's earlier patent). (2) With respect to the patent eligibility exclusions in 35 U.S.C. §101(b)(1)(A) and (B) added by section 3, it specifies that including pre- or post-solution activity by a computer (or other machine or manufacture) in claim language does not confer patent eligibility if that computer is not necessary to practically perform the invention.