Intellectual Property of Plants and Plant Products: Is Fruit Juice Eligible for Patent Protection?

摘要

In the past few years, the Supreme Court of the United States has issued a number of decisions on the eligibility of natural products and methods involving natural compositions for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Following this lead, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a guidance memorandum (Guidelines) earlier this year to aid patent examiners and applicants in determining whether new patent application claims relating to natural products are eligible for patent protection. In the present article, we expand on a previously published article in this journal to focus on how the recent Supreme Court decisions and USPTO Guidelines may affect the patent eligibility of claims directed towards plants and plant products.