Diamond v. Diehr

Diamond v. Diehr
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 14, 1980
Decided March 3, 1981
Full case nameDiamond, Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks v. Diehr, et al.
Citations450 U.S. 175 (more)
101 S. Ct. 1048; 67 L. Ed. 2d 155; 1981 U.S. LEXIS 73; 49 U.S.L.W. 4194; 209 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 1
Case history
PriorCertiorari granted, 445 U.S. 926
Holding
A machine controlled by a computer program was patentable.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices
William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart
Byron White · Thurgood Marshall
Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell Jr.
William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens
Case opinions
MajorityRehnquist, joined by Burger, Stewart, White, Powell
DissentStevens, joined by Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun
Laws applied
35 U.S.C. § 101

Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U.S. 175 (1981), was a United States Supreme Court decision which held that controlling the execution of a physical process, by running a computer program did not preclude patentability of the invention as a whole.[1][2] The high court reiterated its earlier holdings that mathematical formulas in the abstract could not be patented, but it held that the mere presence of a software element did not make an otherwise patent-eligible machine or process patent ineligible. Diehr was the third member of a trilogy of Supreme Court decisions on the patent-eligibility of computer software related inventions.[3]

  1. ^ Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U.S. 175 (1981).
  2. ^ "Diamond v. Diehr".
  3. ^ The other two cases were Gottschalk v. Benson, 409 U.S. 63 (1972), and Parker v. Flook, 437 U.S. 584 (1978). The Supreme Court's most recent decisions on patent eligibility of software-related inventions are Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U.S. 593 (2010) and Alice v. CLS Bank, No. 13-298, 573 U.S. ___ (2014), both of which are cases concerning business methods.