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72 Syracuse L. Rev. 1053 (2022)
Lost in Patent Wonderland with Alice: Finding the Way out

handle is hein.journals/syrlr72 and id is 1044 raw text is: LOST IN PATENT WONDERLAND WITH ALICE: FINDING THE WAY OUT Richard Grunert ABSTRACT .......................................................................................1055 I. THE TWIN DISASTERS OF ALICE FOR PATENT LAW AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT.................................................1056 A. Alice in a Nutshell ......................................................1056 1. The Constitutional Bedrock ...................................1056 2. Statutory Implementation ......................................1057 3. Judicially Developed Exceptions ...........................1058 4. The Contribution of Alice ......................................1059 B. What Alice Left Behind: A Wake of Ambiguity, Unpredictability, and Disruption ....................................1060 C. Meaning for the Patent System...................................1062 1. A Chorus of Criticism............................................1062 A. Judicial Views ................................................1062 B. Administrative Officials' Views.......................1063 C. Practitioners' Views .......................................1064 D. Innovators' Views...........................................1065 E. Commentators' Views .....................................1066 2. Systematic Evidence of Failure..............................1067 A. Impacts on Patent Applicants..........................1068 B. Impacts on Patent Examiners ..........................1070 C. Impacts on Courts ..........................................1073 i. The Federal Circuit -A History of Fragmented Views ............................................................1073 ii. Lower Federal Courts - Inconsistent Results .....................................................................1076 t Richard Gruner is the former Director of the Center for Intellectual Property at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. Professor Gruner is a member of the New York and California state bars and a graduate of the University of California, Irvine (PhD, Criminology, Law and Society 2008), Columbia University School of Law (LL.M. 1982), USC School of Law (J.D. 1978), and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (B.S. 1975). He is the co-author (with Shubha Ghosh and Jay Kesan) of TRANSACTIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: FROM STARTUPS TO PUBLIC COMPANIES (Carolina Acad. Press 4th ed. 2018) and INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: PRIVATE RIGHTS, THE PUBLIC INTEREST, AND THE REGULATION OF CREATIVE ACTIVITY (West Acad. Pub. 3d ed. 2016). The heart of this article is an elaboration on the thoughts and judicial opinions of Giles Rich on the minimum features of patentable inventions. I am honored to work with (and hopefully extend usefully) the ideas of this patent law architect, advocate, and leading light.