USPTO releases new REPORT on Alice rejections.

According to the report:

• The likelihood of receiving a first office action with a rejection for patent-ineligible subject matter increased by 31% in the 18 months following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International in 33 “Alice-affected” technology areas.

• For these technologies, uncertainty in patent examination — measured as variability in patent subject matter eligibility determinations across examiners in the first action stage of examination — increased by 26% in the 18 months following the Alice decision.

• One year after the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued its January 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance (2019 PEG), the likelihood of Alice affected technologies receiving a first office action with a rejection for patent-ineligible subject matter had decreased by 25%.

• Uncertainty in patent examination for Alice-affected technologies decreased by 44% in the 12 months following the issuance of the 2019 PEG.

Experienced practitioners who deal with Alice rejections on a day to day basis know that things have improved since the recent guidelines were issued, but there is still significant variability among examiners.

Read some of our past coverage on Alice guidance, as well as practical advice for responding to Alice rejections, here. And as always, stay tuned for more commentary on Alice issues in future posts.