TAKEAWAY: The USPTO has issued a series of guidance documents reinforcing patent eligibility for applied technologies.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has continued to clarify its approach to subject matter eligibility, issuing both procedural and substantive guidance at the end of the year that underscored its commitment to a predictable and technology-neutral eligibility framework. Early actions by newly appointed USPTO Director John A. Squires—including the issuance of patents covering distributed ledger technologies and medical diagnostics—signaled support for patent protection in applied and emerging technologies that satisfy statutory requirements under the Patent Act.
That policy direction was reinforced by the USPTO’s precedential appellate decision Ex Parte Desjardins (Sept. 26, 2025), which confirmed that claimed improvements to the functioning of a computer, machine learning models, or other technologies may constitute practical applications under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Consistent with Federal Circuit precedent such as Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp., the Desjardins decision emphasized that patent eligibility analysis must meaningfully account for technological improvements reflected in the claims and supported by the specification.
In parallel, the USPTO issued two memoranda in December 2025 clarifying the voluntary use of Subject Matter Eligibility Declarations (SMEDs) under 37 C.F.R. § 1.132. The first memorandum, directed to its Examining Corps, explains that applicants may submit factual evidence relevant to patent eligibility—such as evidence of technological improvement, the state of the art at filing, or integration of a judicial exception into a practical application—and that examiners must consider such evidence under a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard. The second memorandum, addressed to applicants and practitioners, outlines best practices for preparing SMEDs, recommending that eligibility testimony be presented in a standalone declaration and cautioning against using declarations to supplement the original disclosure.
Subsequently, the USPTO issued an advance notice of change to the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), formally updating the Office’s eligibility guidance to reflect the Desjardins decision. The revised guidance explains how examiners should evaluate claims reciting improvements to technology, computer functionality, data structures, learning models, and other applied fields under the Alice/Mayo framework used to evaluate patent eligibility. The updates reaffirm that eligibility must be assessed based on the claimed invention as a whole, with careful consideration of any asserted technological advance, while maintaining a clear distinction between eligibility and other patentability requirements under §§ 102, 103, and 112.
The MPEP revisions add new examples addressing applied technologies and learning systems. Effective immediately, the guidance complements the newly issued SMED memoranda by clarifying the analytical framework to be used by examiners regardless of whether additional evidence is submitted.
Together, these developments are intended to strengthen examination consistency, improve clarity for applicants, and reinforce the availability of patent protection for technological innovations across a broad range of fields.