Section 101 specifies four independent categories of inventions or discoveries that are patent eligible: processes, manufactures, machines, and compositions of matter.
Congress plainly contemplated that the patent laws would be given wide scope,” Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U. S. 303, 308, in order to ensure that “ ‘ingenuity should receive a liberal encouragement,’ ” id., at 308–309.
The Supreme Court’s precedents provide three specific exceptions to §101’s broad principles: laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas.
While not required by the statutory text, these exceptions are consistent with the notion that a patentable process must be “new and useful.”
The §101 eligibility inquiry is only a threshold test. Even if a claimed invention qualifies in one of the four categories, it must also satisfy “the conditions and requirements of this title,” §101(a), including novelty, see §102, non-obviousness, see §103, and a full and particular description, see §112.
