Method (patent)

Article summary

In United States patent law, a method, also called "process", is one of the four principal categories of things that may be patented through "utility patents". The other three are a machine, an article of manufacture (also termed a manufacture), and a composition of matter. In that context, a method is a series of steps for performing a function or accomplishing a result. While the terms method and process are largely interchangeable, method usually refers to a way to use a product to accomplish a given result, and process usually refers to a series of steps in manufacture. Thus, one might speak about a method for curing headaches that comprises the administration of a therapeutically effective dose of aspirin, or speak about a process for making soap or candles. Not all methods, in the dictionary sense, are methods for purposes of United States patent law. The case law "forecloses a purely literal reading of § 101." The concept is elaborated in the article: machine-or-transformation test. A method patent claim can be infringed only when a single person or entity (including contractually obligated agents) practices all of the claimed steps. Neither a physical device, such as a product that can be used to practice the method, nor instructions for practicing the method, are infringing until they are used by a single person to perform all the steps together.…

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