Lathrop GPM
CAFC Case of First Impression of Precedence
On 18 April 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit (CAFC), decided a case of First Impression regarding the intersection of claims for machine learning training with patentable subject matter as defined by 35 U.S.C. SS 101. The court stated, “Today, we only hold that patents that claim nothing more than the application of generic machines learning to new data environments, while not disclosing improvements in the machine learning models that will be applied, are patent-ineligible under SS 101.” (Recentive Analytics, Inc. v. Fox Corp., no. 23-2437 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 18 2025))
In light of the court’s explicit ruling, claims that recite only training a generic version will not be considered patent eligible under 35 U.S.C. SS 101. What this may mean for you
As the 35 U.S.C. We recommend that pending claims for machine learning training be reviewed to ensure that they cite specific technical limitations about the training process. Likewise, we recommend that new patent applications that include claims directed to machine learning training be drafted with thorough support for such specific technical limitations.
While the Recentive Analytics decision should be of some concern to software-oriented businesses, the decision should have less of an impact on pending patent applications that are properly drafted. As new patent applications and prosecutions are prepared, machine learning training claims must be thoroughly supported by technical improvements to either the training process or the trained model.
