“Judicial Trends in Alice Step 2: Increased Reliance on Extrinsic Evidence Reshapes Patent Eligibility”

A recent analysis by Jonathan Tuminaro at Sterne Kessler highlights emerging trends in the judicial application of Step 2 of the Alice framework. Established by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, this framework addresses patent eligibility. Over the past decade, district courts have increasingly relied on extrinsic evidence to assess whether a claimed invention is “well-understood, routine, and conventional”. This growing dependency on supplemental material notably influences judicial interpretations and application of the Alice test in various patent cases. Further detailed insights and specific cases are discussed in Tuminaro’s comprehensive report on this trend, available here.